Immanuel Kant (1724- 1804) was a famous thinker during the German Enlightenment. He made a very classic explanation of the enlightenment thought, in his book "What is enlightenment? Written in 1784. In the article, he explained the enlightenment thought like this. He said: "Enlightenment is to liberate people from immaturity and from superstition or prejudice." . 1724, Kant was born in a family of artisans who made saddles in Koenigsberg, Germany. The strong religious atmosphere and rigid teachings of the small family had a great influence on Kant, which made him very dissatisfied with this bondage and oppression. After graduating from the philosophy department of the University of Konigsberg, he worked as a tutor for some time. However, he continued his academic research. /kloc-in 0/755, he completed the writing of his doctoral thesis "Research on the Forms and Laws of Fire" and obtained his doctorate. Soon, another of his academic papers, A New Explanation of the Basic Principles of Metaphysical Epistemology, attracted the attention of academic circles, so he became an extra lecturer at the University of Konigsberg. Later, he became a professor at the University of Konigsberg. Kant is knowledgeable. He has taught philosophy, theology, physics, mathematics, anthropology, geography and many other subjects at the University of Konigsberg. He also served as Dean of the School of Philosophy of the University of Konigsberg and President of the University of Konigsberg. It enjoys a high reputation in academic circles, and was awarded the title of academician of Berlin Academy of Sciences, Petersburg Academy of Sciences and Tuscany Academy of Sciences in Italy. Kant loves his hometown very much. He stayed at his alma mater, University of Konigsberg, until he retired in 1796. He has never left Konigsberg except once in Danzig. Kant also has a lot of research in natural science. His understanding of celestial bodies is basically materialistic. He believes that the world is made of matter. He said, "Give people material, and I will use it to create a universe." He put forward many scientific hypotheses, such as the hypothesis that the earth's rotation slows down due to tidal friction, the hypothesis that the sun and planets are composed of rotating nebulae, and so on. His theory later formed the famous Kant-Topras nebula theory in astrophysics. But Kant is a philosopher first, and his philosophical thoughts are mainly reflected in his book Critique of Pure Reason, which took him 65,438+02 years to write. Kant's philosophical thought is dualistic. He believes that practical experience is important, but innate knowledge is also indispensable. Experience can only become objective knowledge if it has a universal and inevitable form of innate perceptual knowledge. For example, he said, "Experience is what we realize. It is the first result we understand, but it is not the limit of understanding. " He added: "All our knowledge can start from sensory impression or experience, but there is another knowledge component that has never developed from this aspect, but has surpassed experience. Transcendental knowledge pays less attention to external objects, but more attention to the way we know external objects, or it pays more attention to the innate concept of objects. " He also said, "All knowledge is either born or acquired. Although the acquired knowledge is obtained from sensory experience, sensory experience includes sensory impression or sensory state. Innate knowledge is not acquired in this way, it includes all universal and inevitable knowledge. " He believes that the so-called innate intuitive form of sensibility is time and space, and space is the form of all external sensory phenomena and the subjective condition of sensibility, and external intuition can only exist under this condition. Therefore, before all experiences occur, all forms of phenomena exist in the soul in a purely intuitive way. Time is not realized from people's experience, and the appearance of time is innate in the mind. Therefore, time and space are the necessary and innate preconditions for the possibility and reality of all phenomena. With regard to the acquisition of human knowledge, Kant believes that human knowledge is acquired from two basic sources of consciousness. The first is the ability to feel impressions, and the second is the ability to know objects through these impressions or appearances, that is to say, the former can feel objects, and the latter can think about objects in the depths of the soul, so intuition and concepts constitute the elements of all knowledge. He also believes that all knowledge and concepts come from feeling, and only the "phenomenal" world of feeling is known. I made the world of "phenomenon", and "phenomenon" exists in me. As for the noumenon of things that are not me, that is, the so-called "truth" of things themselves, it is impossible for people to know. In dialectics, Kant distinguishes between what is directly known and what is inferred. He put forward the famous syllogism: first put forward the basic proposition, then put forward the inference and then put forward the conclusion. He is extraordinary in many ways. He said: "The human mind has gone through a series of conditions due to transcendental idealism and reached an unconditional position, that is to say, it has reached the principle, which is the honor of transcendental idealism. In this way, we have reached the knowledge about the world from our own knowledge and the knowledge about the highest existence from the knowledge about the world. " Kant believes that the fact of existence and the concept of existence are two different things, and what I imagine or consciously imagine will inevitably imagine that they really exist. To this end, he also made an image metaphor. A person's pocket is empty, but he can imagine that there is 100 yuan in it. He can only imagine them in his pocket. Imagination is ok, but it doesn't mean that the money must be in his pocket. In the field of philosophy, Kant put forward many famous antinomies or contradictions, for example, first, the theory of truth: the world has a beginning in time and is limited in space; Anti-theory: Time has no beginning and space is infinite. Second, the theory: all complex entities in the world are composed of simple parts; Paradox: There is no complex of simple parts in the world, and there is no simple thing in the world. Third, the causal law of natural laws is not enough to explain any cosmic phenomenon; Paradox: Everything in the universe must happen under the action of natural laws that control everything, and freedom does not exist at all. Fourth, the theory of affirmation: the world has some form of absolute inevitability, and if this existence is not a part of the world, it is the cause of the world; Paradox: whether it exists in the world as a part of the world or exists outside the world as a reason for the world, there can be no absolute inevitability. In the field of ethics, Kant has also made important research achievements. He believes that people have dignity and loftiness, not because they have achieved their goals and satisfied their own desires or hobbies, but because they have virtue. Virtue is a force that forces one to dominate oneself, out of a sense of responsibility, and realized through hardship. He believes that responsibility is the source of moral value. Kant put forward that the basic principles of morality include: 1) is universal and everyone must abide by it. 2) People should be regarded as an end rather than a tool; Kant said: "Everyone should always regard himself and others not only as tools, but also as an end-this is the law that all rational people should abide by." He emphasized that man is an end in itself, and his importance conforms to the humanitarian principle. 3) The principle of freedom and self-discipline. Kant believes that man, as a perceptual being, is not free because of the inevitability of the world. However, as the existence of a rational world, it has got rid of the limitation of natural inevitability and its will is free. The so-called freedom of will means that individuals can decide themselves freely. Freedom is the premise of morality, and only freedom can have morality. However, Kant also emphasized that while enjoying freedom, people should restrain themselves and themselves. The will of every rational person is the will to grant universality. Morality is originally promulgated by the actors themselves, not imposed by others, not "heteronomy" As a representative of German enlightenment thinkers, Kant tends to Hobbes and Rousseau in political thought. He believes that the country originated from "social contract" or "primitive contract". He believes that every member of the country is free as a human being, and every member as a subject is equal to other members, and there is no hereditary privilege. Under the political system, every citizen is independent. However, he made many restrictions on freedom, equality and independence. In his view, freedom only refers to freedom of thought, speech, criticism and voting, while freedom without action means freedom to suppress the authorities and violent revolution. Equality is also limited to legal equality without economic equality; Regarding independence, all other citizens are divided into "passive citizens" and "active citizens". The former includes women, employees, apprentices, mentors and serfs, who do not enjoy political rights. Only the latter enjoys political rights. Kant thinks that the most ideal national system is constitutional monarchy. He advocated that legislative power belongs to all the people, national sovereignty belongs to the people, and everyone is free only if he obeys his own legislation. Only when he abides by the legislation can everyone be equal as a citizen. He believes that the legislative power of the country should belong to the parliament, the judicial power should be given to the elected judges, and the monarch should have the executive power.