Kant's Core Philosophical Thought
Kant's exploration of knowledge in his life can be divided into two stages, the early stage and the late stage, marked by 1770. I mainly studied natural science in the early stage and philosophy in the later stage. The main achievements in the early stage are General History of Nature and Theory of Celestial Bodies published in 1755, which put forward the nebula hypothesis of the origin of the solar system. During the nine years from 178 1, Kant published a series of great and original works, which brought a revolution to the philosophical thought at that time, including Critique of Pure Reason (178 1) and Critique of Practical Reason (1). The publication of Three Criticism marks the completion of Kant's philosophical system.
Philosophical aspect
Emanuel? Kant put forward three kinds of criticism, namely, pure rational criticism, practical rational criticism and judgment criticism.
The question to be answered in Critique of Pure Reason is: What can we know? Kant's answer is: we can only know what natural science makes us realize, and philosophy is of no more use than helping us to clarify the necessary conditions for making knowledge possible. Kant completely reversed this problem from Plato. Before that, people made knowledge conform to external things. Kant said, what if we make things conform to our knowledge in turn? Kant compared this way of thinking with Copernicus's "Heliocentrism": Before Copernicus, people thought that all the planets revolved around our earth, but Copernicus said that our earth revolved around other planets.
Criticism of practical reason is the destination and purpose of Kant's early work Criticism of Pure Reason. The so-called "practical reason" refers to the will of the subject of practice, and the "criticism" of practical reason is to examine the essence of the "will" that stipulates moral behavior and the principles it follows. The book includes The Original Theory of Pure Practical Reason and Methodology of Pure Practical Reason. The important theoretical significance of this book lies in that it highlights the problem of human subjectivity, emphasizes the dignity and loftiness of personality, and shows a strong humanistic spirit.
The question to be answered in Critique of Judgment is: What hope can we have? Kant's answer is: if I want to be a real morality, I must assume that God exists and everything is not over after the end of life. In Critique of Judgment, Kant also pays attention to the purpose, significance and mode of action of people's spiritual activities, including people's aesthetic appreciation and fantasy ability.
Kant brought about a Copernican transformation in philosophy. He said that things are not affecting people, but people are affecting things. We are building the real world. In the process of understanding things, people are more important than things themselves. Kant even thinks that we can't know the truth of things, only the appearance of things. Kant's famous assertion is that man is the measure of everything. His argument has something in common with modern quantum mechanics: the characteristics of things are related to observers.
Religious aspect
On religious issues, Kant admits that neither experience nor reason can prove the existence of God. But he believes that in order to maintain morality, we must assume the existence of God and soul. He called these beliefs "practical hypothesis", that is, an unprovable hypothesis, but in order to practice, the hypothesis must be established.
Moral aspect
Kant denies that the will is dominated by external factors, and thinks that the will legislates for itself, and the ability of human beings to distinguish right from wrong is innate, not acquired. This set of laws of nature is an overwhelming command, applicable to all situations, and a universal moral code. Kant believes that true moral behavior is an act made purely on the basis of obligation, and doing things for personal utilitarian purposes cannot be considered as moral behavior. Therefore, according to Kant, whether an act conforms to the moral norms does not depend on the consequences of the act, but on the motivation of taking the act. Kant also believes that we are free only by obeying moral laws, because we abide by our own moral standards. If we just want to do so, we are not free, because you have become a slave to all kinds of things.
astronomy
1754, Kant published a paper on whether the earth's rotation changes and whether the earth will age, which boldly questioned the "theory of cosmic invariance".
1755, Kant published the book General History of Nature and Theory of Celestial Bodies, and put forward the theory of the origin of the solar system for the first time. Kant pointed out in his book that the solar system evolved from nebulae. This nebula consists of solid particles of different sizes. "Celestial bodies begin to form in the most attractive places." Gravitation makes particles close to each other, and large particles attract small particles to form larger clumps, which are getting bigger and bigger. The central part with the strongest gravity attracts the most particles and forms the sun first. The motion of the outer particles falling to the central body under the gravity of the sun changes direction due to the collision of other particles and becomes a circular motion around the sun. These particles orbiting the sun gradually form several centers of gravity and finally condense into planets orbiting the sun. The formation process of satellites is similar to that of planets.
After Kant's nebula theory was published, people didn't pay attention to it. It was not until Laplace's nebula theory was published that people remembered Kant's nebula theory.
Political ideas
Politically, Kant was a liberal. He supported the French Revolution and the political system. On Permanent Peace, published in 1795, should be the last far-reaching work that Kant contributed to mankind. The book puts forward the principles of world citizens, world confederations and sovereign countries' non-interference in internal affairs, which are still of practical significance.
A Brief Introduction to Kant's Core Philosophical Thought
One of the most important thinkers in the Enlightenment and the founder of German classical philosophy. At the same time, he is also an astronomer and one of the founders of nebula theory.
In the critical period, people's cognitive ability and its scope and limit are critically studied, and the world is divided into "phenomenon world" and "thing in itself" world; People's cognition is divided into three links: perceptual, intellectual and rational, and the concept of "innate comprehensive judgment" is put forward. It is believed that time and space are innate forms of sensibility; Twelve categories, such as the law of causality, are inherent innate forms of intellectuality; Reason needs a kind of knowledge of noumenon, but it goes beyond the limits of human knowledge and is bound to fall into a contradiction that is difficult to solve by itself, that is, antinomy. People's understanding can only reach "phenomenon". In the thing-in-itself world, supernatural things such as God, freedom and soul belong to the category of belief, and they exist to meet the needs of morality. Because of the obvious gap between the two worlds, Kant tried to communicate the aesthetic judgment and teleological judgment of nature, and put forward the aesthetic subjectivity and purposeless purpose as well as the internal and external purpose of nature, and finally ended his system with educated and moral people. Politically, he sympathized with the French Revolution and advocated freedom and equality. In education, we believe that we should attach importance to children's nature and form the habit of children consciously observing discipline. His main works are: Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason, Critique of Judgment, Introduction to Future Metaphysics, Foundation of Moral Metaphysics, etc.