Immanuel Kant Tee

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was a German philosopher from Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia), who is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in modern Western philosophy. He spent his entire life in and around Königsberg, where he studied and later held the chair of logic and metaphysics at the university. His three Critiques—the Critique of Pure Reason (1781), the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and the Critique of Judgment (1790)—represent a watershed in philosophical thought. In the first Critique, Kant sought to resolve the impasse between rationalism and empiricism by arguing that while all knowledge begins with experience, the mind actively structures that experience through innate categories such as space, time, and causality. His moral philosophy, developed in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and the second Critique, centers on the categorical imperative—the principle that one should act only according to rules that one could will to be universal laws. He argued that moral worth lies in duty and rational principle, not in consequences or feelings. Kant's influence extends across virtually every domain of philosophy, from epistemology and ethics to aesthetics, political theory, and the philosophy of religion.