Biography of Immanuel Kant - Essay Example

Immanuel Kant1. Introduction One of the people that have influenced the world philosophy is Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher. Immanuel is described as an important and key figure in modern philosophy. In his perspective, Kant argued that elementary concepts shape experiences of people, in this case, the source of all kinds of morality is reason. His thoughts have continued to hold major influences in modern thoughts, specifically in the disciplines of ethics, aesthetics, epistemology, political science and metaphysics.

One of Kant’s important works include, critique of Pure Reason, which was aimed at explaining the association between human experiences and reason. By undertaking this project, Kant hoped that he could manage to go past what had been thought as the failures in metaphysics and traditional philosophy (Banham, 24). In this project, he had purposed to end what had been long considered as a period of speculative theories regarding human experiences while at the same time, opposing the cynicisms of some of the great thinkers2.

BiographyImmanuel was born in Konigsberg town of Prussia in Russia in 1724, being the fourth in a family of nine. After baptism, he changed his name from Emanuel to Immanuel after having been introduced to Hebrew studies. In his early career life, Kant worked as a tutor in the town of Judtschen, which is now Veselovka between 1750 and 1754. His father, George Kant, was a harnessmaker who resided in Memel between 1682 and 1746. In his youthful time, Kant was sold even though an unspectacular student.

He was raised within a pietist family that was devoted to religious devotion, literal reading and interpretation as well as personal humility, which was based on the teachings of the Bible. In his upbringing, he got a stern kind of education, which was very punitive, strict and full of discipline in which preference was given to religious instructions in Latin as opposed to science and mathematics. Despite of the fact that Kant was raised in a Christian background and believed in God, he became skeptical about religion as he grew up later in life (Guyer, 31).

Following this development, many people tagged him agnostic. 3. Kant’s Early WorkKant is renowned for his particular contributions I the fields of metaphysics and ethics, however, he was also helpful in providing important insights in to various disciplines as well. Kant was instrumental in developing one of the most important discoveries about the origin of the earth and its rotation. In this discovery, he earned a global prize from Berlin Academy in 1754. Kant deduced in his discovery that the present solar system developed from a huge cloud of gases.

He tried to provide explanation for the current order in the particular solar system, which had previously been imposed by Newton as the making of God. Additionally, he explained about the origin of the Galaxy or Milky Way, which is a large constellation of stars. The discoveries and perspectives made by Kant have been used in various parts of the world especially in higher institutions of learning in the teaching of different kinds of philosophical studies (Guyer, 4). Works CitedBanham, Gary.

 Kant's Transcendental Imagination. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2006. Print.Guyer, Paul. Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgement. Critical Essays. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. 2003. Print.Guyer, Paul. Knowledge, Reason and Taste: Kant's Response to Hume. New Jersey, NY: Princeton University Press. 2008. Print.