Emanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant
Born	(1724-04-22)22 April 1724 Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia)
Died	12 February 1804(1804-02-12) (aged 79) Königsberg, Prussia
Residence	Königsberg, Prussia
Nationality	Prussian
Education	Collegium Fridericianum University of Königsberg (BA; MA, 1755; PhD, 1755; PhD, 1770)
Era	Age of Enlightenment
Region	Western philosophy
School	Kantianism Enlightenment philosophy German idealism
Institutions	University of Königsberg
Academic advisors	Martin Knutzen, Johann Gottfried Teske,
Notable students	Jakob Sigismund Beck, Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Main interests	Epistemology Metaphysics Ethics Cosmogony
Notable ideas	Transcendental idealism Critical philosophy Synthetic a priori Noumenon Sapere aude Categorical imperative Hypothetical imperative "Kingdom of Ends" The understanding–reason distinction The abstract–concrete distinction Criticism of subjective idealism Rechtsstaat (rule according to higher law) The primacy of the practical Nebular hypothesis
Influences Wolff Baumgarten Plato Aristotle Empiricus Hume Smith Descartes Leibniz Locke Rousseau Newton Tetens Swedenborg Euclid
Influenced Virtually all subsequent Western philosophy
Signature

Immanuel Kant (/kænt/;German: [ɪˈmaːnu̯eːl kant]; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher who is a central figure in modern philosophy. Kant argues that the human mind creates the structure of human experience, that reason is the source of morality, that aesthetics arises from a faculty of disinterested judgment, that space and time are forms of human sensibility, and that the world as it is "in-itself" is independent of humanity's concepts of it. Kant took himself to have effected a "Copernican revolution" in philosophy, akin to Copernicus' reversal of the age-old belief that the sun revolves around the earth. Kant's beliefs continue to have a major influence on contemporary philosophy, especially the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political theory, and aesthetics.

Politically, Kant is one of the earliest exponents of the idea that perpetual peace could be secured through universal democracy and international cooperation. He believed that this will be the eventual outcome of universal history, although it is not rationally planned. The exact nature of Kant's religious ideas continues to be the subject of especially heated philosophical dispute, as viewpoints are ranging from the idea that Kant was an early and radical exponent of atheism who finally exploded the ontological argument for God's existence, to more critical treatments epitomized by Nietzsche who claimed that Kant had "theologian blood" and that Kant was merely a sophisticated apologist for traditional Christian religious belief, writing that "Kant wanted to prove, in a way that would dumbfound the common man, that the common man was right: that was the secret joke of this soul."