Knowra Kantianism Kantianism Kantianism is a family of philosophical approaches inspired by Immanuel Kant’s critical philosophy and its successors, including work in ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, and political philosophy.
Immanuel Kant : An eighteenth-century German philosopher whose critical philosophy reshaped modern epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. His arguments and distinctions are the common starting point for Kantian philosophy.
Kantian ethics : An ethical approach that grounds moral requirements in rational principles and respect for persons. It applies Kant’s practical philosophy to questions about right action and obligation.
Johann Gottlieb Fichte : A German idealist philosopher who developed a post-Kantian system centered on the self-positing ego. Fichte recast Kantian subjectivity as the starting point for an idealist account of reality.
Empiricism : A philosophical tradition holding that experience is the primary source or foundation of knowledge. Kant sought to answer empiricism by explaining the mind’s a priori contribution to experience.
German idealism : A philosophical movement that developed in German-speaking Europe after Kant, with reason and subjectivity central to its systems. Kant’s critical philosophy set the problems and vocabulary that this movement transformed.
Critical philosophy : Kant’s method of examining the conditions and limits of human knowledge and reason. Kantianism inherits its project of testing what reason can legitimately claim.
Human dignity : The inherent worth attributed to persons, often grounded in their rational agency and capacity for moral choice. Kantian ethics treats persons as ends in themselves, shaping modern accounts of dignity.
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling : A German idealist philosopher whose work explored nature, freedom, and the relation between subject and object. Schelling expanded post-Kantian philosophy beyond Kant’s limits on knowledge of nature.
Rationalism : A philosophical tradition that gives reason a central role in acquiring knowledge, often independently of sensory experience. Kant both draws on rationalist arguments and limits their claims about knowledge beyond experience.
Neo-Kantianism : A nineteenth- and early twentieth-century revival that reinterpreted Kant’s philosophy for modern science, culture, and values. It is a historically distinct branch of Kantianism that renewed Kant’s influence.
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