Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was a German philosopher whose critical philosophy examined the limits of knowledge, the grounds of morality, and the nature of aesthetic judgment.

Rationalism: A philosophical tradition that treats reason as a primary source of knowledge. Kant inherited rationalism’s claims about reason and sought to establish their legitimate limits.
Transcendental idealism: Kant’s view that objects as experienced conform to the mind’s conditions of cognition, while things in themselves remain unknown. It states the framework behind Kant’s distinction between appearances and things in themselves.
Kantian ethics: An ethical approach that grounds moral duties in rational principles rather than consequences or desires. It develops Kant’s account of autonomy, duty, and universal moral law.
Johann Gottlieb Fichte: A German philosopher who developed a systematic idealism from Kant’s critical philosophy. Fichte sought to make the activity of the self the foundation of a more unified system.
Utilitarianism: An ethical theory that evaluates actions by their consequences for overall well-being. It contrasts with Kantian ethics, which grounds moral requirements in principles and duties.
Empiricism: A theory of knowledge that gives experience a central role in forming ideas and justifying beliefs. Kant accepted experience’s importance while arguing that the mind contributes structures of its own.
Categories of understanding: A set of basic concepts, including causality and substance, that Kant says the understanding applies to experience. They explain how sensory appearances become objects of coherent experience.
Kantianism: A family of philosophical approaches inspired by Kant’s critical philosophy and its successors. It shows how Kant’s arguments became a continuing tradition rather than a closed system.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: A German philosopher whose idealist system reworked Kant’s account of reason, knowledge, and history. Hegel criticized Kant’s limits on knowledge and developed a different account of reason’s development.
Moral sentimentalism: A family of ethical theories that gives feelings or sentiments a fundamental role in moral judgment. It opposes Kant’s effort to ground moral obligation in reason rather than sentiment.

Linked from 113 pages