GE2126 - Immanuel Kant

The idea of freedom was central to the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, (one of the great thinkers of the German enlightenment) specifically the idea of autonomy. This does not refer to political freedom but rather the concept of thinking freely. He believed that we have a duty to attempt to understand by what principles we act and live and to reflect on the mechanisms and conditions of the ways we get to know anything.

In his famous essay, "What is enlightenment?" Kant stated that we live in a kind of self-imposed immaturity, meaning that we do not use our reason without the guidance of others because we lack the resoluteness and courage to think for ourselves. His motto and the motto of the enlightenment was 'Dare to use your own understanding!' One should educate oneself to develop a reasonable judgement and be able to defend the principles of one's actions and beliefs. It was particularly important to him to be able to critically reflect on one's own beliefs and dearly held truths.

He himself wrote three 'critiques', the Critique of Pure Reason, the Critique of Practical Reason and the Critique of Judgement. These can be understood in the terms of three principle questions, respectively:

1. What can I know?
2. What ought I to do?
3. How can I form a proper judgement?

These were meant to inspire a critical reflection on oneself, not on others.

Kant is also famous for his aesthetic theory, which he divided into two categories, The Sublime and The Beautiful. He thought of them in terms of aesthetic judgement, believing that the aesthetic experience engaged not just our senses but also our critical faculties of judgement. He did not think that beauty was a purely sensual experience but he did not think it was a purely intellectual one either. He claimed that the experience of beauty involved four key 'moments':

1. Disinterest - one observes the beautiful object without desiring to possess it or know its purpose.
2. Purposiveness - although it appears to serve no purpose, the truly beautiful looks like it was designed for a reason, however, we can't identify this reason.
3. Expectation of agreement - we expect that others will agree that this is beautiful but we are unable to explain why they should find it beautifu
4. Necessity - that the beauty is a tangible quality like size or shape and cannot be denied by anyone because it's clearly a property of the object.

Kant thought that our ability to share beauty and ideas created a 'Gemeinsam', a community of sensuous beings that not only share ideas but also pleasure and displeasure.