Kant's philosophy basic ideas. Kant's philosophy: briefly

Immanuel Kant laid the foundation of classical philosophy in Germany. Representatives of the German philosophical school focused attention on the freedom of the human spirit and will, its sovereignty regarding nature and the world. The philosophy of Immanuel Kant determined the main task was to answer the basic questions that touch on the essence of life and the human mind.

Kant's philosophical views

The beginning of Kant's philosophical activity is called the pre-critical period. The thinker was engaged in natural science issues and the development of important hypotheses in this area. He created a cosmogenic hypothesis about the origin solar system from a gas nebula. He also worked on the theory of the influence of tides on the daily speed of rotation of the Earth. Kant studied not only natural phenomena. He investigated the question of the natural origin of distinct human races. He proposed to classify representatives of the animal world according to the order of their probable origin.

After these studies, a critical period begins. It began in 1770, when the scientist became a professor at the university. The essence of Kant's research activity comes down to exploring the limitations of the human mind as an instrument of knowledge. The thinker creates his most significant work in this period- “Critique of Pure Reason.”

Biographical information

Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724 in small town Koenigsberg, in poor family artisan. His mother, a peasant woman, sought to raise her son educated. She encouraged his interest in science. The upbringing of the child was religious. The future philosopher had poor health since childhood.

Kant studied at the Friedrichs-Collegium gymnasium. In 1740 he entered the University of Königsberg, but the young man did not have time to finish his studies; he received news of his father’s death. In order to earn money to feed his family, the future philosopher works as a tutor at home in Yudshen for 10 years. At this time, he developed his hypothesis that the solar system originated from the original nebula.

In 1755, the philosopher received his doctorate. Kant begins teaching at the university, gives lectures on geography and mathematics, and gains increasing popularity. He strives to teach his students to think and look for answers to questions on their own, without resorting to ready-made solutions. Later, he began to give lectures on anthropology, metaphysics and logic.

The scientist has been teaching for 40 years. In the autumn of 1797, he completes pedagogical activity due to his advanced age. Given his poor health, Kant adhered to an extremely strict daily routine all his life, which helped him live to an old age. He didn't marry. The philosopher had never left the country in his life. hometown, and was known and respected in it. He died on February 12, 1804, and was buried in Konigsberg.

Kant's epistemological views

Epistemology is understood as a philosophical and methodological discipline that studies knowledge as such, as well as studying its structure, development and functioning.

The scientist did not recognize the dogmatic way of knowledge. He argued that it was necessary to build on critical philosophizing. He clearly expressed his point of view in his exploration of the mind and the limits it can reach.

Kant in the world famous work The Critique of Pure Reason proves the correctness of agnostic ideas. Agnosticism assumes that it is impossible to prove the truth of judgments based on subjective experience. The philosopher’s predecessors considered the object of knowledge (i.e., the world, reality) as the main cause of cognitive difficulties. But Kant did not agree with them, suggesting that the reason for the difficulties of cognition lies in the subject of cognition (i.e., in the person himself).

The philosopher talks about the human mind. He believes that the mind is imperfect and limited in its capabilities. When trying to go beyond the limits of knowledge, the mind stumbles upon insurmountable contradictions. Kant identified these contradictions and designated them as antinomies. Using reason, a person is able to prove both statements of the antinomy, despite the fact that they are opposite. This baffles the mind. Kant discussed how the presence of antinomies proves that there are limits to human cognitive capabilities.

Views on ethical theory

The philosopher studies ethics in detail, and expresses his attitude in works that later became famous - “Fundamentals of the Metaphysics of Morals” and “Critique of Practical Reason”. According to the views of the philosopher, moral principles originate from practical reason, which develops into will. Characteristic feature The ethics of the thinker is that non-moral views and arguments do not affect moral principles. He takes as a guide those norms that come from “pure” moral will. The scientist believes that there is something that unites moral standards and is looking for it.

The thinker introduces the concept of “hypothetical imperative” (also called conditional or relative). The imperative is understood as a moral law, a compulsion to action. A hypothetical imperative is a principle of action that is effective in achieving a specific goal.

Also, the philosopher introduces the opposite concept - the “categorical imperative”, which should be understood as a single supreme principle. This principle must prescribe actions that are objectively good. The categorical imperative can be described by the following Kantian rule: one should act guided by a principle that can be done common law for all people.

Kant's aesthetics

In his work “Critique of Judgment”, the thinker thoroughly discusses the issue of aesthetics. He views the aesthetic as something pleasing in an idea. In his opinion, there is the so-called power of judgment, as the highest ability of feeling. It is between reason and reason. The power of judgment is capable of uniting pure reason and practical reason.

The philosopher introduces the concept of “expediency” in relation to the subject. According to this theory, there are two types of expediency:

1. External - when an animal or object can be useful to achieve a specific goal: a person uses the strength of an ox to plow the ground.
2. Internal is what evokes a feeling of beauty in a person.

The thinker believes that the feeling of beauty arises in a person precisely when he does not consider an object in order to apply it practically. In aesthetic perception main role It is the shape of the observed object that plays a role, not its expediency. Kant believes that something beautiful pleases people without understanding.

The power of reason harms the aesthetic sense. This happens because the mind tries to dismember the beautiful and analyze the interconnection of details. The power of beauty eludes man. It is impossible to learn to feel beauty consciously, but you can gradually cultivate a sense of beauty in yourself. To do this, a person needs to observe harmonious forms. Similar forms are presented in natural nature. It is also possible to develop aesthetic taste through contact with the world of art. This world was created to discover beauty and harmony, and familiarization with works of art - The best way cultivate a sense of beauty.

Influence on world history of philosophy

The critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant is rightly called the most important synthesis of systems previously developed by scientists from all over Europe. The philosopher's works can be considered the great crown of all previous philosophical views. Kant's activities and achievements became the starting point from which modern philosophy began to count. Kant created a brilliant synthesis of all the important ideas of his contemporaries and predecessors. He reworked the ideas of empiricism and the theories of Locke, Leibniz, and Hume.

Kant created a general model using criticism of existing theories. He added his own, original ideas generated by his brilliant mind to the existing ideas. In the future, the criticism inherent in the scientist will become an undeniable condition in relation to any philosophical idea. Criticism cannot be refuted or destroyed, it can only be developed.

The most important merit of the thinker is his solution to a deep, ancient problem that divides philosophers into supporters of rationalism or empiricism. Kant worked on this issue to show representatives of both schools the narrowness and one-sidedness of their thinking. He found an option that reflects the real interaction of intellect and experience in the history of human knowledge.

4.b. Kant defined philosophy as a science that gives a person knowledge about his purpose in the world. According to him, philosophy is called upon to answer the following three most important questions: 1. What can I know?; 2. What should I (based on correct worldview knowledge) do? and 3. What can I hope for?

The original principle of Kant's philosophy: Before you begin to know, it is necessary to examine the instrument of knowledge and its capabilities. Human consciousness, says the founder of German classical philosophy, perceives only the “Phenomenon” (that which appears, is shown, reaches us through the senses) of phenomena and objects, but the “Noumenon” (“thing in itself”, “Dish”) remains inaccessible to consciousness forever an sich", - what a thing, a phenomenon is in reality, in itself, regardless of our feelings and sensory perceptions).

4.c. Knowledge, according to Kant, goes through three stages. The first, initial stage of knowledge among them is sensory contemplation. Its capabilities and content are determined, on the one hand, by the specificity of the senses (in this regard, Kant completely shares the views of David Hume), and on the other hand, by the inherent a priori (before experimental) forms of contemplation of the senses. A priori, not taken from experience, forms of sensory intuition, according to Kant, are Space and Time. The perception of space and time, according to Kant, is not acquired from human experience, but is given to man before any experience. Consciousness only uses the already existing a priori forms of contemplation in order to organize our perceptions of the surrounding reality by these a priori signs and group them one after another, thanks to the a priori nature of time, or one next to another, thanks to the a priori nature of space. It is precisely thanks to the forms of sensory contemplation inherent in us a priori that we have the possibility of sensory contemplation itself - sensory knowledge is possible. Thus, in their manifestation, Space and Time are a product of the activity of consciousness.

The next, second, stage of our knowledge is rational knowledge. They are higher than sensory contemplation and qualitatively different from it. At the level of the previous, sensory contemplation, a person deals with feelings, thanks to which ideas are formed in the human mind, in other words, concrete sensory images of objects and phenomena. And rational cognition is accomplished not with the help of feelings, but with the help of reason, which begins to operate with concrete sensory images, regardless of the sensory perception of objects and phenomena present at the moment. Thanks to the activity of the intellect, concepts are formed in the human mind. Concepts, according to Kant, do not contain ideas about the surrounding reality, but knowledge of the essence of objects and phenomena. Here is what the great philosopher writes about all this:

“Our knowledge arises from two main sources of the soul: the first of them is the ability to receive ideas (receptivity to impressions), and the second is the ability to cognize an object through these ideas (spontaneity of concepts). Through the first ability, an object is given to us, and through the second it is thought in relation to representations (as just one definition of the soul). Consequently, intuitions and concepts are the beginnings of all our knowledge, so that neither concepts without intuition corresponding to them in some way, nor intuition without concepts can give knowledge... Our nature is such that intuitions can only be sensual, that is, contain only the way in which objects act on us. The ability to think about the object of sensual contemplation is only in the understanding. None of these abilities can be preferred to the other. Without sensuality, not a single object would be given to us, and without reason no one could think. Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind. Therefore, it is equally necessary to make an object sensual (that is, to add to it in contemplation) and to comprehend one’s contemplations with the intellect (verstandlich zu machen) (that is, to subsume them under concepts). These two abilities cannot perform the functions of each other. The intellect cannot contemplate anything, and the senses cannot think anything. Only from their combination can knowledge arise. However, this does not give us the right to mix the share of participation of each of them; there are reasons to carefully isolate and distinguish one from the other" (Kant. Critique of Pure Reason. Works, volume 3. Moscow, 1964, pp. 154-155.

How does the mind “obtain” knowledge of the essence of objects and phenomena from the ideas accumulated by sensory contemplation? Kant believes that this is accomplished thanks to the innate characteristics of the mind. He called these innate features a priori for reason. The latter, according to the philosopher, are not acquired by a person from experience or through training, but are inherent in the mind a priori. Kant called these elements a priori innate to the human understanding the categories of pure understanding, in other words, the universal and necessary categories of scientific thinking. According to Kant, there are 12 such categories, which are combined into four groups: the categories of Quantity (single, universal and particular), the categories of Quality (presence, absence and limitation), the categories of Relationships (substances/accidents, causes/effects, interactions) and categories of Modality (possibility/impossibility, existence/non-existence, necessity or chance).

If we speak at the level of sensory contemplation, then the categories of pure understanding, according to Kant, “discover” certain signs in our sensory representations, “sort” these signs in a certain way and already, according to a priori criteria, “connect” our ideas and concepts with each other. As a result, our logical (rational) thinking becomes possible. If we did not have these a priori categories of pure understanding, then there would be no logical, rational thinking, there would be no knowledge.

Kant's categories of pure reason played a major role in the development of not only philosophical thought, but also in the development of intellectual culture in general. First of all, it should be emphasized that with the doctrine of the apriority of pure reason, Kant laid a fruitful beginning for the development of the categories of all German classical philosophy, the pinnacle of the categorical apparatus of which was reached in the philosophy of Hegel. Kant himself had already identified the main group of categories of philosophical thinking and pointed out the dialectical contradiction/interdependence of these categories within each of their four groups. In Kant’s works one can already see the Hegelian approach to considering the dialectics of the development of nature, thinking and society: thesis (singular, presence, possibility...) - antithesis (multiple, absence, impossibility...) - synthesis (universality, interaction...) . This is the first thing. And secondly, the categories of pure reason form the basis of Kantian logic, whose supporters are fruitfully developing it, Kantian logic, even in our days.

Third, the highest level of knowledge, according to Kant, is the knowledge of pure reason. At this level, a person tries to cognize something that is in no way accessible to knowledge either through sensory contemplation or through the means of pure reason (by reasoning, logical thinking). These are truths of the highest, absolute order. Kant includes three groups of ideas among them: 1. Psychological ideas of pure reason (about the human soul, its mortality and immortality), 2. Cosmological ideas of pure reason (ideas about the Cosmos, its infinity, beginning and end) and 3. Theological ideas of pure reason (ideas about God, his existence and essence). Kant calls the totality of all these ideas the antinomies of pure reason. The philosopher proves that with the same grounds our reason can prove that a person has a soul and that a person does not have this soul; that the soul of man is mortal and that it is immortal; that matter is divisible to infinity and that there is no division of matter to infinity; that the Cosmos has a beginning and an end, is limited in space and that the Cosmos is infinite in space and time; that the material world is dominated by necessity and that the world is dominated by chance; that God exists and that God does not exist. Kant believed that in the field of problems of pure reason there cannot be demonstrative and convincing solutions for everyone.

Being a convinced atheist in his own worldview, Kant convincingly illustrated his philosophical conclusions regarding the antinomies of pure reason with his analysis of theological evidence for the existence of God. In his time (and in ours too!) theologians and some theological philosophers argued that the existence of God is a scientifically reliable fact; many different kinds of evidence were given in favor of the existence of God. As an example, Kant undertook to analyze the evidence that was and is now considered classical, that is, the most convincing, unsurpassed and insurmountable evidence of the existence of God. These include evidence: Ontological, Cosmological and Teleological. We will now neither set out the essence of these theological proofs, nor analyze the essence of Kant’s refutations of these proofs. Let's just say that Kant classically demonstrated the inconsistency of the evidence for the existence of God and thereby made a significant contribution to the development of atheistic thought. Here we note that with his criticism of the evidence for the existence of God, Kant aroused malicious hatred of himself on the part of the churchmen of his day. It got to the point that the most zealous church obscurantists named their unloved dogs and horses after Kant, which they then mercilessly beat.

4.g. Despite his powerful talent, enormous education and immeasurable hard work, Kant was unable to solve all the philosophical problems that he himself set for himself. And not only we, enriched by the wealth of post-Kantian philosophical achievements, know this. Kant himself realized this. And he not only realized, but clearly rushed between philosophical problems that he had not fully resolved. (In parentheses, we note that Kant was mistakenly convinced of the possibility of a satisfactory, scientific solution to the problems of the philosophical worldview. At the same time, both he and we know that any unambiguously stated, be it dual, indefinite or antinomian solution to a philosophical question, is in fact its solution .) Therefore, Kant was forced in his subsequent works or in subsequent editions of his works to make not only additions and corrections, but also to publicly renounce some of his philosophical statements. This is especially evident in the example of his decision about the main thing for him philosophical problem- problems of cognition.

In the theory of knowledge (epistemology), Kant took the position of subjective idealism and agnosticism. But his subjective idealism, unlike classical subjective idealism, did not prevent him from recognizing the existence of things and phenomena independent of our consciousness. Kant's “Phenomenon” is essentially a subjective perception of things and phenomena external to human consciousness, and “Noumenon” is objective things in themselves (Dish an sich), regardless of whether a person perceives them or does not perceive them. And the recognition of things outside consciousness and independent of consciousness is no longer subjective idealism, not even idealism in general. This is pure materialism.

Kant's theory of knowledge makes a person's feelings not a connecting link between consciousness and the objective world, but an obstacle between them. And Kant felt the gap between feelings and reason that he affirmed, in addition to his desire. Kant felt an even greater separation from reality (reality, practice) in his teaching on the antinomies of pure reason when he moved on to a philosophical analysis of the problems of practical life in his work “Critique of Practical Reason.” In this work, Kant wrote: “I am forced here to limit the area of ​​​​pure reason in order to make room for faith.” Kant's critics, especially Marxist-Leninists, have seized on Kant's phrase to accuse him of departing from the essence of his critique of the existence of God, that Kant himself believed in God. But this is not true.

In his work “Critique of Pure Reason” (1781), Kant recognized the antinomy of every “Thus” and “No” in relation to the ideas of pure reason (God, the Universe, Soul, meaning human life and so on). But in the “Critique of Practical Reason” written later, he considers it expedient and useful to perceive some of the ideas of pure reason not by reason, but by faith. Faith in God, he said, is completely untenable from the point of view of science and knowledge, but in some aspects this faith can be useful in the practical life of a person and society. Isn't that right? The same can be said about the soul and meaning of human life. In the field of morality - both according to Kant and ours - a person to a large extent must accept universal human principles of behavior and follow them without any preliminary theoretical proof. Moreover, by allowing elements of faith into the process of cognition, Kant made the first attempt to admit practice into the field of cognition. In my personal opinion, Kant’s thought about practice was continued, brilliantly developed and confirmed precisely in Marxist philosophy, the revolutionary revolution of which, according to the Marxists themselves, consisted in the introduction of practice into knowledge.

In promoting the ideas of pure reason, Kant showed himself to be a great humanist. He said that it is not God or even society, but Man who stands above all and above all. According to Kant, Man must always and constantly be an end for himself and never a means for anything else (to achieve the goals of the whole society, to serve God, religion and the ruler, boss). Considering the problems of morality to be a priori, he put forward his Maxim (Kant’s Moral Maxim) to define morality: “Act in such a way that the principles of your behavior can become the principle of universal human legislation.”

Kant was one of the first to provide a philosophical justification for the need for peaceful coexistence of all states and peoples of the world. He expressed this idea most convincingly and clearly in his Treatise on Peace. Being a homebody, he actively became involved and by personal example contributed to the reconciliation of Germany and Russia, which were fighting against each other at that time; being a subject of Prussia, he belonged to all humanity and felt like a citizen of the whole Earth.

4.d. Kant paid considerable attention to the problems of Aesthetics. His ideas are still found and work fruitfully in the golden fund of treasures of aesthetic thought. Being a great philosopher and great scientist, Kant placed the measure of the genius of artists above the talent of all other figures. The genius of artists, according to Kant, lies in this. that they create new things out of nothing, from their own spirit and their own vision. If, for example, Cervantes had not written Don Quixote, and Shakespeare had not written his plays, then no one would ever have completed their work. As for scientists, they discover in nature only what others could do without them.

Kant defined aesthetics as judgments about expediency without purpose. From this point of view, art, both in creation and in perception (“consumption”), is disinterested.

Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) - German philosopher and scientist, the founder of German classical philosophy. He lived all his life in Königsberg, where he graduated from the university and was there from 1755 to 1770. associate professor, and in 1770 - 1796. university professor.

In Kant's philosophical development, two periods are distinguished - “pre-critical” and “critical”. In the so-called pre-critical period Kant recognizes the possibility of speculative knowledge of things as they exist in themselves; in the so-called critical period - based on a preliminary study of the forms of knowledge, sources and boundaries of our cognitive abilities, he denies the possibility of such knowledge. In the “pre-critical” period (“General Natural History and Theory of the Heavens”), Kant developed a “nebular” cosmogonic hypothesis about the formation of a planetary system from an initial “nebula,” that is, from a cloud of diffuse matter.

“Thing in itself” is a philosophical term meaning things as they exist in themselves, as opposed to how they are “for us” - in our knowledge. This difference was considered in ancient times, but special meaning acquired in the 17th – 18th centuries, when this was joined by the question of the ability (or inability) of our knowledge to comprehend “Things in themselves”. This concept became one of the main ones in Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason”, according to which theoretical knowledge is possible only in relation to phenomena, but not in relation to the “Thing in itself”, this unknowable basis of sensually intuited and rationally conceivable objects. The concept of “Things in themselves” has other meanings for Kant, including noumenal essence, i.e., an unconditional object of reason that is beyond experience (God, immortality, freedom). The contradiction in Kant’s understanding of the “Thing in itself” lies in the fact that, being supernatural, transcendental, it at the same time affects our feelings and evokes sensations.

Knowledge begins, according to Kant, with the fact that the “Thing in itself” affects the external sense organs and evokes sensations in us. In this premise of his teaching, Kant is a materialist. But in his doctrine of the forms and limits of knowledge, Kant is an idealist and an agnostic. He claims that neither the sensations of our sensuality, nor the concepts and judgments of our reason can provide any reliable knowledge “about things in themselves.” These things are unknowable. True, empirical knowledge about things can expand and deepen indefinitely, but this does not bring us closer to knowledge of “things in themselves.”

In logic, Kant distinguished between ordinary or general logic, which examines the forms of thought, abstracting from questions about their objective content, and transcendental logic, which examines in the forms of thought that which imparts an a priori, universal and necessary character to knowledge. Kant formulates the main question for him - about the sources and boundaries of knowledge - as a question about the possibility of a priori synthetic (i.e., giving new knowledge) judgments in each of the three main types of knowledge - mathematics, theoretical natural science and metaphysics (speculative knowledge of truly existing things) . Kant's solution to these three questions of the Critique of Pure Reason coincides with the study of the three main cognitive abilities - sensibility, reason and reason.

Kant came to the conclusion that all three speculative sciences of traditional philosophy that considered these ideas - “rational psychology”, “rational cosmology” and “rational theology” - are imaginary sciences. Since his criticism leads to a limitation of the competence of reason, Kant recognized: what knowledge loses, faith gains. Since God cannot be found in experience and does not belong to the world of phenomena, then, according to Kant, faith is necessary, since without this faith it is impossible to reconcile the demands of moral consciousness with the indisputable facts of evil that reigns in human life.

Based on the results of the criticism of theoretical reason, Kant built his ethics. Its initial premise turned out to be the conviction formed by Kant under the influence of Rousseau that every personality is an end in itself and in no case should be considered as a means of accomplishing any tasks, even if these were tasks of the common good. Kant proclaimed the fundamental law of ethics to be a formal internal command - the categorical imperative. At the same time, Kant sought to strictly separate the consciousness of moral duty from the sensory, empirical inclination to fulfill the moral law: an act will be moral only if it is performed solely out of respect for the moral law. In the event of a conflict between sensory inclination and moral law, Kant demands unconditional submission to moral duty.

Kant is far from an unambiguously negative assessment of the errors of reason and its antinomy - he sees in this a manifestation of the desire for an unlimited expansion of knowledge. Ideas of reason have a regulatory, guiding significance for natural science. The doctrine of a priori, rational structures and the dialectics of reason constitutes, according to Kant, the true subject of philosophy. The “Transcendental Doctrine of Method” defines the methods of critical philosophical research (discipline), its goals, ideal and methods of achieving them, examines the system of objects of pure reason (existence and ought) and knowledge about them (metaphysics of nature and morality), as well as its architectonics .

The final part of the Critique of Pure Reason is intended to answer the question “How is metaphysics possible?” In the composition of human cognition we find a clearly expressed tendency to unite rational operations under the form of an idea. In this tendency to unify the action of the human mind finds its characteristic expression. What are the a priori ideas of pure reason? According to Kant, there are three such ideas: soul, world, God. They are the basis of our natural desire to unite all our knowledge, subordinating it to common goals (tasks). These ideas crown knowledge and turn out to be the ultimate ideas of our knowledge. In this sense, they have an a priori character. At the same time, unlike the categories of reason, ideas are related not to the content of experience, but to something lying beyond the boundaries of all possible experience. In relation to reason, the ideas of reason act, therefore, as a designation of an essentially never achievable task, since they cannot become a means of cognition of something lying beyond the boundaries of experience. After all, from the fact of the existence of these ideas in our minds, the fact of their actual existence does not at all follow. The ideas of reason therefore have exclusively regulatory significance, and, consequently, the sciences, which have made their subject the study of the soul, the world and God with the help of reason, find themselves in a problematic position. In their totality, rational psychology (the doctrine of the soul), rational cosmology (the doctrine of the world as a whole) and rational theology (the doctrine of God) form the main sections of metaphysics. The methods of the metaphysical sciences, due to the noted problematic nature, therefore lead in a completely natural way, and not due to chance or personal failure of the metaphysicians themselves, to antinomies that are irremovable and insoluble within the limits of reason itself. The latter means that we can with equal success prove directly opposite statements (for example, the limited and unlimited nature of the world in time and space, the subordination of everything to the action of causality and the presence of free will that denies it, the existence of God and his absence). This situation indicates the impossibility of metaphysics becoming a science. The objects of its knowledge are beyond the limits of experience, and therefore we are not able to have reliable knowledge of them. Is a person in this situation doomed to complete ignorance of noumena (things in themselves)? Is it possible to think of them in a consistent way? This possibility opens up to us not on the paths of scientific knowledge, but only with the help of practical reason, i.e. e. on the basis of morality.

The categorical imperative is a term introduced by Kant in the “Critique of Practical Reason” (1788) and, in contrast to the conditional “hypothetical imperative”, denotes the fundamental law of his ethics, has two formulations: “... act only in accordance with such a maxim, guided by which you are then At the same time, you can wish that it becomes a universal law" and "...act in such a way that you always treat humanity, both in your own person and in the person of everyone else, just as an end and never treat it only as a means " The first formulation expresses the formal understanding of ethics characteristic of Kant, the second limits this formalism. According to Kant, the categorical imperative is a universal, generally binding principle that should guide all people, regardless of their origin, position, etc. The categorical imperative presupposes the existence of free will, will as the free cause of our actions. The unconditionality of free will, the immortality of the soul, and the existence of God is not the result of rational (theoretical) proof, but a prerequisite for practical reason, more precisely, the moral law. They do not enrich the sphere theoretical knowledge(and in this sense are not theoretical dogmas), but give the ideas of reason objective meaning. The affirmation of free will, the immortality of the soul and the existence of God owes its reality to the moral law, and in this (but only in this!) sense, religion is based on morality, and not vice versa. Thus, according to Kant, the very existence of God is necessary because virtue in a world subject to mechanical causality will never be crowned with happiness, and justice, which requires the reward of virtue, testifies to the existence of a world with an omnipotent God who rewards what he deserves.

Kant's teaching had a huge influence on the subsequent development of scientific and philosophical thought. With his teaching on the antinomies of reason, Kant played an outstanding role in the development of dialectics. Kant was criticized and tried to rely on him by philosophers of various directions. Originated in the 60s. XIX century Neo-Kantianism sought to develop systems of (mainly subjective) idealism based on Kant's ideas.

Kant's philosophy is the completion and at the same time a critique of the Enlightenment. At the same time, it forms the beginning of the last phase of the development of classical European philosophy, represented by the school of German idealism (Fichte, Schelling, Hegel). Kant, therefore, has a particularly important place, and it is not surprising that it is to him that the philosophical thought of the 19th and 20th centuries constantly returns.

At the end of the 18th century. In Germany, a philosophical movement arose, which reflected in a unique form the significant social transformations of that time, in particular the French bourgeois revolution of 1789, qualitative changes in the field of natural science (discoveries in physics, chemistry, biology). It also reflected the specific conditions of Germany, one of the backward countries of Europe at that time: the weakness and indecision of the bourgeoisie, its tendency to compromise with the nobility, the absence of a revolutionary movement. In history German philosophy its classical period began.

The founder of classical German philosophy is Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Kant's philosophical work is divided into two periods: pre-critical (until the early 70s) and critical. In the first period of his activity, the philosopher was engaged in research into questions of natural science and tried to provide their solution from a materialistic position. Especially great importance for science and philosophy was Kant's hypothesis about the emergence of the solar system from a giant gas nebula. The critical period of Kant’s activity began in the 70s (the works “Critique of Pure Reason”, “Critique of Judgment”, “Critique of Practical Reason”). He moves to the position of philosophical dualism and, based on a critical analysis of human cognitive abilities, develops new circle problems. The unity of Kant's system of views during this period is determined by the connection that he attaches to the formulation and solution of the following questions: What can I know? What can I do? What can I hope for? What is a person? In his opinion, the answer to the last question is key and its solution will lead to the solution of all other issues.

Theory of knowledge. Kant carries out a kind of “Copernican revolution” in philosophy, arguing in his work “Critique of Pure Reason” that it is not our ideas that are consistent with knowable things, the world, but the world is consistent with our ideas. This means that a person always looks at the world through the prism of his subjective states and laws of thinking. Respectively main task philosophy is to develop the question of the limits of human cognitive capabilities. When starting to analyze the process of cognition, Kant proceeded from the fact that there is an external world independent of people’s consciousness, the world of “things in themselves,” which is the source of our sensations. Along with it, according to Kant, there is a world of phenomena, which he calls nature - this is the world that we see, perceive, in which we live and act. The world of phenomena, or nature, does not have an independent, independent human consciousness existence, but arises as a result of the influence of the “thing in itself” on the senses and is nothing more than a set of human ideas. The world of phenomena created by man, according to Kant’s teachings, is completely different from the world of “things in themselves.” Man deals only with the world of phenomena. And if this is so, then the world of “things in themselves” is absolutely inaccessible to him. A person knows nothing about him and cannot know, he is not knowable. Everything that a person knows, according to Kant, relates only to the world of phenomena, i.e. to his own ideas.

I. Kant developed a complex epistemological structure, including three stages, three steps, in the process of cognition. Stage comes first sensory knowledge. It is characterized by a person’s ability to organize the chaos of sensations with the help of their subjective forms - space and time. In this way, the object of sensibility, the world of phenomena, is formed. The second stage is the area of ​​reason. Reason performs the function of bringing the diversity of sensory material under the unity of the concept. The third stage is reason, which, according to I. Kant, has the ability to direct the activity of the intellect, setting certain goals for it. Reason, unlike reason, generates “transcendental” ideas that go beyond the limits of experience. They express the desire of the mind to comprehend “things in themselves.” However, reason is powerless here. As soon as he tries to go beyond the boundaries of experience, things “run away from him.”

Ethics. Morality, according to Kant, is the most existential basis of human existence, what makes a person human. It cannot be derived from anywhere, but on the contrary is the only justification for the rational structure of the world. Morality according to Kant has the character of imperativeness, i.e. universality and mandatory requirements. One of the provisions (maxim) of the categorical imperative read: “Act only in accordance with such a maxim, guided by which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.” Man, according to Kant, is unable to penetrate the world of “things in themselves.” In this world there is God, the soul, free will. And therefore, science is not able and does not have the right to judge God, about the soul (to prove the absence of God or the mortality of the soul), because all this is not available to it. The only thing, according to Kant, that can penetrate into the world of “things in themselves”, able to break away from the observable world of phenomena and look into the other world, is religion.

Aesthetics. The exclusive role of art is to remove and overcome the gap between the world given to us in the senses and the intelligible world (things in themselves). According to Kant, truth and goodness find themselves in beauty.

Immanuel Kant - short biography

Immanuel Kant, famous German philosopher, b. April 22, 1724; he was the son of a saddler. Kant's initial education and upbringing was strictly religious in nature in the spirit of the pietism that reigned at that time. In 1740, Kant entered the University of Königsberg, where he studied philosophy, physics and mathematics with particular love, and only later began to listen to theology. After graduating from the university, Kant took up private lessons, and in 1755, having received his doctorate, he was appointed private lecturer at his home university. His lectures on mathematics and geography were a great success, and the popularity of the young scientist quickly grew. As a professor, Kant tried to encourage his listeners to think independently, being less concerned about communicating finished results to them. Soon Kant expanded the range of his lectures and began to read anthropology, logic, and metaphysics. He received an ordinary professorship in 1770 and taught until the autumn of 1797, when senile weakness forced him to stop his teaching activities. Until his death (February 12, 1804), Kant never traveled beyond the outskirts of Konigsberg, and the whole city knew and respected his unique personality. It was in highest degree a truthful, moral and strict person, whose life went on with the punctual correctness of a wound clock. The character of Immanuel Kant was reflected in his style, precise and dry, but full of nobility and simplicity.

Kant's epistemology

Kant develops his epistemology in his work “Critique of Pure Reason”. Before proceeding to solve the main problem, before characterizing our knowledge and defining the area to which it extends, Kant asks himself the question of how knowledge itself is possible, what are its conditions and origin. All previous philosophy did not touch this question and, since it was not skeptical, was content with the simple and unfounded confidence that objects are knowable by us; This is why Kant calls it dogmatic, in contrast to his own, which he himself characterizes as a philosophy of criticism.

Kant's philosophy

The cardinal idea of ​​Kant’s epistemology is that all our knowledge is composed of two elements - content, which experience provides, and shapes, which exists in the mind prior to all experience. All human cognition begins with experience, but experience itself is realized only because it finds in our intellect, pre-experimental (a priori) forms, pre-given conditions of all cognition; Therefore, first of all, we need to investigate these non-empirical conditions of empirical knowledge, and Kant calls such research transcendental. (See for more details the articles Kant on Analytic and Synthetic Judgments and Kant on A Priori and A Posteriori Judgments.)

The existence of the external world is first communicated to us by our sensuality, and sensations point to objects as the causes of sensations. The world of things is known to us intuitively, through sensory representations, but this intuition is possible only because the material brought by sensations is inserted into a priori, independent of experience, subjective forms of the human mind; these forms of intuition, according to Kant's philosophy, are time and space. (See Kant on space and time.) Everything that we know through sensations, we know in time and space, and only in this time-spatial shell does the physical world appear before us. Time and space are not ideas, not concepts, their origin is not empirical. According to Kant, they are “pure intuitions” that form the chaos of sensations and determine sensory experience; they are subjective forms of the mind, but this subjectivity is universal, and therefore the knowledge arising from them has an a priori and obligatory character for everyone. This is why pure mathematics is possible, geometry with its spatial content, arithmetic with its temporal content. The forms of space and time are applicable to all objects of possible experience, but only to them, only to phenomena, and things in themselves are hidden for us. If space and time are subjective forms of the human mind, then it is clear that the knowledge they condition is also subjectively human. From here, however, it does not follow that the objects of this knowledge, phenomena, are nothing but an illusion, as Berkeley taught: a thing is available to us exclusively in the form of a phenomenon, but the phenomenon itself is real, it is a product of the object in itself and the knowing subject and stands in the middle between them. It should be noted, however, that Kant’s views on the essence of things in themselves and phenomena are not entirely consistent and are not the same in his various works. Thus sensations, becoming intuitions or perceptions of phenomena, are subject to the forms of time and space.

But, according to Kant’s philosophy, knowledge does not stop at intuitions, and we obtain a completely complete experience when we synthesize intuitions through concepts, these functions of the mind. (See Kant's Transcendental Analytics.) If sensibility perceives, then understanding thinks; it connects intuitions and gives unity to their diversity, and just as sensibility has its a priori forms, so does reason have them: these forms are categories , that is, the most general concepts independent of experience, with the help of which all other concepts subordinate to them are combined into judgments. Kant considers judgments in terms of their quantity, quality, relation and modality, and shows that there are 12 categories:

Only thanks to these categories, a priori, necessary, comprehensive, is experience in a broad sense possible, only thanks to them is it possible to think about an object and create objective judgments that are binding on everyone. Intuition, says Kant, states facts, reason generalizes them, derives laws in the form of the most general judgments, and that is why it should be considered the legislator of nature (but only of nature as a totality phenomena), this is why pure natural science (metaphysics of phenomena) is possible.

In order to obtain judgments of reason from judgments of intuition, it is necessary to subsume the first ones under the corresponding categories, and this is done through the ability of imagination, which can determine which category this or that intuitive perception fits into, due to the fact that each category has its own diagram, in the form of a link homogeneous with both the phenomenon and the category. This scheme in Kant’s philosophy is considered to be an a priori relation of time (filled time is a scheme of reality, empty time is a scheme of negation, etc.), a relation that indicates which category is applicable to a given subject. (See Kant's teaching on schematism.) But although the categories in their origin do not in the least depend on experience and even condition it, their use does not go beyond the limits of possible experience, and they are completely inapplicable to things in themselves. These things in themselves can only be thought of, but not known; for us they are noumena(objects of thought), but not phenomena(objects of perception). With this, Kant's philosophy signs the death warrant for the metaphysics of the supersensible.

Nevertheless, the human spirit still strives for its cherished goal, for the super-experienced and unconditional ideas of God, freedom, and immortality. These ideas arise in our mind because the diversity of experience receives a supreme unity and final synthesis in the mind. Ideas, bypassing the objects of intuition, extend to the judgments of reason and give them the character of the absolute and unconditional; This is how, according to Kant, our knowledge is graded, starting with sensations, moving to reason and ending in reason. But the unconditionality that characterizes ideas is only an ideal, only a task to the solution of which a person constantly strives, wanting to find a condition for each conditioned one. In Kant's philosophy, ideas serve as regulative principles that govern the mind and lead it up the endless ladder of greater and greater generalizations, leading to the highest ideas of the soul, the world and God. And if we use these ideas of the soul, the world and God, without losing sight of the fact that we do not know the objects corresponding to them, then they will serve us great service as reliable guides to knowledge. If in the objects of these ideas they see cognizable realities, then there is a basis for three imaginary sciences, which, according to Kant, constitute the stronghold of metaphysics - for rational psychology, cosmology and theology. An analysis of these pseudosciences shows that the first is based on a false premise, the second is entangled in insoluble contradictions, and the third tries in vain to rationally prove the existence of God. So, ideas make it possible to discuss phenomena, they expand the limits of the use of reason, but they, like all our knowledge, do not go beyond the boundaries of experience, and before them, as before intuitions and categories, things in themselves do not reveal their impenetrable secret.

Kant's Ethics - Briefly

Kant devoted his philosophical work “Critique of Practical Reason” to questions of ethics. In his opinion, in ideas clear mind speaks his mind the last word, and then the area begins practical reason, area of ​​will. Due to the fact that we must to be moral beings, the will instructs us to postulate, to consider certain things in themselves as knowable, such as our freedom and God, and this is why practical reason has primacy over theoretical reason; he recognizes as knowable that which is only conceivable for the latter. Due to the fact that our nature is sensual, the laws of the will address us in the form of commands; they are either subjectively valid (maxims, volitional opinions of the individual), or objectively valid (mandatory instructions, imperatives). Among the latter, it stands out for its indestructible demands categorical imperative, commanding us to act morally, no matter how these actions affect our personal well-being. Kant believes that we should be moral for the sake of morality itself, virtuous for the sake of virtue itself; the performance of duty is itself the end of good conduct. Moreover, only such a person can be called completely moral who does good not due to the happy inclination of his nature, but solely for reasons of duty; true morality overcomes inclinations rather than goes hand in hand with them, and among the incentives for virtuous action there should not be a natural inclination to such actions.

According to the ideas of Kant's ethics, the moral law is neither in its origin nor in its essence does not depend on experience; it is a priori and therefore is expressed only as a formula without any empirical content. It reads: " act in such a way that the principle of your will can always be the principle of universal legislation" This categorical imperative, not inspired either by the will of God or the desire for happiness, but drawn by practical reason from its own depths, is possible only under the assumption of freedom and autonomy of our will, and irrefutable fact its existence gives a person the right to look at himself as a free and independent agent. True, freedom is an idea, and its reality cannot be proven, but, in any case, it must be postulated, it must be believed in by those who want to fulfill their ethical duty.

The highest ideal of humanity is the combination of virtue and happiness, but again, happiness should not be the goal and motive of behavior, but virtue. However, Kant believes that this reasonable relationship between bliss and ethics can only be expected in the afterlife, when the omnipotent Deity will make happiness an invariable companion to the fulfillment of duty. Faith in the realization of this ideal also evokes faith in the existence of God, and theology is thus possible only on a moral, but not on a speculative basis. In general, the basis of religion is morality, and the commandments of God are the laws of morality, and vice versa. Religion is different from morality only insofar as it adds to the concept of ethical duty the idea of ​​God as a moral legislator. If we examine those elements of religious beliefs that serve as appendages to the moral core of natural and pure faith, then we will have to come to the conclusion that the understanding of religion in general and Christianity in particular should be strictly rationalistic, that true service to God is manifested only in a moral mood and in the same actions.

Kant's aesthetics

Kant sets out his aesthetics in his work “Critique of Judgment”. The philosopher believes that in the middle between reason and understanding, in the middle between knowledge and will, there is power judgments, the highest faculty of feeling. It seems to merge pure reason with practical reason, brings particular phenomena under general principles and, conversely, from general principles displays special cases. Its first function coincides with reason; with the help of the second, objects are not so much known as discussed from the point of view of their expediency. An object is objectively expedient when it is consistent with its purpose; it is subjectively purposeful (beautiful) when it corresponds to the nature of our cognitive ability. Ascertaining objective expediency gives us logical satisfaction; perceiving subjective expediency brings us aesthetic pleasure. Kant believes that we should not endow nature with expediency active forces, but our idea of ​​a goal is completely legitimate, as a subjective human principle, and the idea of ​​a goal, like all ideas, serves as an excellent regulative rule. How dogmas, mechanism and teleology are incompatible, but in techniques scientific research they both reconcile in an inquisitive search for reasons; The idea of ​​purpose, in general, has done a lot for science by discovering causes. Practical reason sees the goal of the world in man, as a subject of morality, because morality has itself as the goal of its existence.

Aesthetic pleasure, delivered by the subjectively expedient, is not sensual, because it has the character of a judgment, but also not theoretical, because it has an element of feeling. The beautiful, Kant’s aesthetics asserts, is liked by everyone in general and is necessary; it is liked because we consider it without any relation to our practical needs, without interest and self-interest. Aesthetically beautiful brings the human soul into a harmonious mood, evokes the harmonious activity of intuition and thinking, and that is why it is expedient for us, but it is expedient only in this sense, and we do not at all want to see in an artistic object an intention to please us; beauty is expediency without purpose, purely formal and subjective.

The significance of Kant in the history of Western philosophy

These are the most general outline main thoughts of Kant's critical philosophy. It was the great synthesis of all systems ever developed by the genius of European humanity. It served as the crown of the philosophy that preceded it, but it also became the starting point of all modern philosophy, especially German. She absorbed empiricism, rationalism, and Locke