Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher. Born in Königsberg in the Kingdom of Prussia, he is considered one of the central thinkers of the Enlightenment. His comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, political theory, and the philosophy of religion have made him one of the most influential and highly discussed figures in modern Western philosophy. Kant's philosophy is centered on the human subject and motivated by the desire to secure the possibility of both knowledge and morality against the threats of skepticism and determinism. In the Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1787), Kant argues for transcendental idealism, the doctrine that space and time are mere "forms of intuition" (German: Anschauung) that structure all experience and that we have knowledge only of "appearances" and not of the nature of things in themselves. Kant drew a parallel to the Copernican Revolution in his proposal to think of the objects of experience as conforming to people's spatial and temporal forms of intuition and the categories of the understanding, instead of the traditional method of showing how the mind might conform to its objects. Kant believed that reason is the source of morality and that the categorical imperative binds all rational agents. He believed that aesthetics arises from a faculty of disinterested judgment. Kant hoped that perpetual peace could be secured through an international federation of republican states and international cooperation. Kant believed that true religion is grounded on morality. The exact nature of his religious views is a matter of dispute.
Early life Immanuel Kant was born on 22 April 1724 into a Prussian German family of Lutheran faith in Königsberg in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia). His mother, Anna Regina Reuter, was born in Königsberg to a father from Nuremberg. Her surname is sometimes erroneously given as Porter. Kant's father, Johann Georg Kant, was a German harness-maker from Memel, at the time Prussia's most northeastern city (now Klaipėda, Lithuania). Kant believed his family to be of Scottish descent, although this has not been verified by genealogical research. Kant was baptized as Emanuel, changing the spelling of his name to Immanuel after learning Hebrew. He was the fourth of nine children (six of whom reached adulthood). The Kant household stressed the Pietist values of religious devotion, humility, and a literal interpretation of the Bible. Immanuel Kant's early education was strict, punitive, and highly disciplinary, with an emphasis on Latin and religious instruction rather than mathematics and science. In his later years, Kant lived a strictly ordered life. It was said that neighbors would set their watches by his daily walks. Kant considered marriage twice, first to a widow and then to a Westphalian woman, but on both occasions waited too long. Although he never married, he nevertheless had a rewarding social life; he was a popular teacher and a modestly successful author, even before commencing his major philosophical works.
Young scholar Kant demonstrated an early aptitude for study. He first attended the Collegium Fridericianum (then directed by Franz Albert Schultz), from which he graduated at the end of the summer of 1740. In 1740, aged 16, he enrolled at the University of Königsberg, where he would later remain for the rest of his professional life. He studied the philosophy of Gottfried Leibniz and Christian Wolff under Martin Knutzen (Associate Professor of Logic and Metaphysics from 1734 until he died in 1751), a rationalist who was also familiar with developments in British philosophy and science and introduced Kant to the new mathematical physics of Isaac Newton. Knutzen dissuaded Kant from the theory of pre-established harmony, which he regarded as "the pillow for the lazy mind". He also dissuaded Kant from idealism, the idea that reality is purely mental, which most philosophers in the 18th century regarded negatively. The theory of transcendental idealism that Kant later included in the Critique of Pure Reason was developed partially in opposition to traditional idealism. Kant had contacts with students, colleagues, friends and diners who frequented the local Masonic lodge. His main publisher, Johann Friedrich Hartknoch, was also a Freemason. His father's stroke and subsequent death in 1746 interrupted his studies. Kant left Königsberg shortly after August 1748; he would return there in August 1754. He became a private tutor in the towns surrounding Königsberg, but continued his scholarly research. In 1749, he published his first philosophical work, Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces (written in 1745–1747). During the Russian occupation of Königsberg during the Seven Years' War (1758–1762), Kant's financial circumstances improved, as he obtained a number of well-paid tutoring assignments from Russian military officers and civil administrators stationed in the city. In December 1758, after the death of Johann David Kypke, Kant petitioned Empress Elizabeth for appointment to the vacant chair of logic and metaphysics at the University of Königsberg, but the position was awarded to another candidate.
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