伊曼努尔·康德

伊曼努爾·康德（德語：Immanuel Kant；德語發音：[ɪˈmaːnu̯eːl ˈkant]；1724年4月22日－1804年2月12日）為啓蒙時代著名德意志哲學家，德國古典哲學創始人，其學說深深影響近代西方哲學，並開啓了德國唯心主義和康德義務主義等諸多流派。 並且影響後世，誕生了新康德主義。康德是啓蒙運動時期最後一位主要哲學家，是德國思想界的代表人物。他調和了勒內·笛卡兒的理性主義與法蘭西斯·培根的經驗主義，被認為是繼蘇格拉底、柏拉圖和亞裏士多德後，西方最具影響力的思想傢之一。康德有其自成一派的思想係統，並且有不少著作，其中核心的三大著作被合稱為“三大批判”，即《純粹理性批判》、《實踐理性批判》和《判斷力批判》，這三部作品有係統地分別闡述他的知識學、倫理學和美學思想。《純粹理性批判》尤其得到學術界重視，標志着哲學研究的主要方向由本體論轉嚮認識論，是西方哲學史上劃時代的巨著。此外，康德在宗教哲學、法律哲學和歷史哲學方面也有重要論著。康德哲學理論的一個基本出發點是，認為將感性直觀（經驗）轉化為知識的能力——純粹知性概念（即“範疇”），以及將知識外的理念（如上帝，心靈，自由）加以實踐的能力——純粹理性概念，都是理性的功能，是人與生俱來的，沒有它們我們就無法理解世界。

他的認識論與倫理學分別是論證知識和道德的，他批判和吸收了英國經驗主義（休謨、貝剋萊）與歐陸的理性主義（主要是沃爾夫-萊布尼茲的理性傳統），對德國唯心主義（費希特和黑格爾）與浪漫主義影響深遠。認識論與倫理學構成康德哲學的兩大部分，前者關於“現象界”；後者關於“意志自由”是截然對立和二分的。兩者的中介成為康德“批判哲學”的終結思，自然與自由的溝通和統一就在於《批判力批判》中。此外他還曾針對太陽係的形成提出第一個現代的理論解釋，即康德-拉普拉斯假設。
 
 

Immanuel Kant (UK: /kænt/, US: /kɑːnt/; German: [ɪˈmaːnu̯eːl ˈkant, -nu̯ɛl -]; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics have made him one of the most influential figures in modern Western philosophy.

In his doctrine of transcendental idealism, Kant argued that space and time are mere "forms of intuition" which structure all experience, and therefore that while "things-in-themselves" exist and contribute to experience, they are nonetheless distinct from the objects of experience. From this it follows that the objects of experience are mere "appearances", and that the nature of things as they are in themselves is consequently unknowable to us. In an attempt to counter the skepticism he found in the writings of philosopher David Hume, he wrote the Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1787), one of his most well-known works. In it, he developed his theory of experience to answer the question of whether synthetic a priori knowledge is possible, which would in turn make it possible to determine the limits of metaphysical inquiry. Kant drew a parallel to the Copernican revolution in his proposal that the objects of the senses must conform to our spatial and temporal forms of intuition, and that we can consequently have a priori cognition of the objects of the senses.^[b]

Kant believed that reason is also the source of morality, and that aesthetics arise from a faculty of disinterested judgment. Kant's views continue to have a major influence on contemporary philosophy, especially the fields of epistemology, ethics, political theory, and post-modern aesthetics. He attempted to explain the relationship between reason and human experience and to move beyond what he believed to be the failures of traditional philosophy and metaphysics. He wanted to put an end to what he saw as an era of futile and speculative theories of human experience, while resisting the skepticism of thinkers such as Hume. He regarded himself as showing the way past the impasse between rationalists and empiricists, and is widely held to have synthesized both traditions in his thought.

Kant was an exponent of the idea that perpetual peace could be secured through universal democracy and international cooperation, and that perhaps this could be the culminating stage of world history. The nature of Kant's religious views continues to be the subject of scholarly dispute, with viewpoints ranging from the impression that he shifted from an early defense of an ontological argument for the existence of God to a principled agnosticism, to more critical treatments epitomized by Schopenhauer, who criticized the imperative form of Kantian ethics as "theological morals" and the "Mosaic Decalogue in disguise", and Nietzsche, who claimed that Kant had "theologian blood" and was merely a sophisticated apologist for traditional Christian faith.^[c] Beyond his religious views, Kant has also been criticized for the racism presented in some of his lesser-known works, such as Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View and "On the Different Races of Man".

Kant published other important works on ethics, religion, law, aesthetics, astronomy, and history. These include the Universal Natural History (1755), the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), the Metaphysics of Morals (1797), the Critique of Judgment (1790), which looks at aesthetics and teleology, and Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason (1793).