The Importance of Immanuel Kant's Works Research Paper

The Importance of Immanuel Kant's Works - Research Paper Example Kant has influenced many other great thinkers of modern times. It was because of the wholeness of Kant’s work that many people from different professional backgrounds identify with him. Kant wrote extensively on political philosophy, moral philosophy, perception, and categories of the faculty of understanding. In this paper we will attempt to outline the main ideas of Kant and then an analysis of his ideas will be followed. We will also discuss the strengths of Kant’s ideas briefly at the end of the paper. Kant wrote extensively on philosophy as he covered different branches of philosophy. He wrote on Metaphysics, ethics, politics, and aesthetics. He was particularly interested in creating a bridge between the rationalist and empiricist philosophies. The major work of Kant is The Critique of Pure Reason. This book holds great value in the field of philosophy as it made important contributions to Metaphysics. In this great book Kant has attempted to solve the problems th at were not previously answered by Metaphysics and philosophy. Kant is known all over the world for these two books and they are also a compulsory read in any philosophy curriculum. In the other works of Immanuel Kant, his works on ethics, aesthetics, and political philosophy are included. Kant wrote Ground Work of the Metaphysics of Morals in which he outlined his moral philosophy. In other books like Critique of Practical Reason and Metaphysics of Morals, Kant has explained his view on ethics and morality. He believed that morals and ethical standards cannot be relative in nature and they should be absolute. He also stressed more on actions and behaviors than the consequences of actions and behaviors. The Categorical Imperative of Kant is a widely discussed and accepted ethical theory. The views o Kant on ethics will be discussed in detail later. Kant also wrote on aesthetics in detail in his books Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime and Critique of Judgment. On aesthetics Kant was of the opinion that our judgment of beauty is not cognitive in nature (Kant, 1). This means that we do not reason and then come to a conclusion about beauty rather it is aesthetical in nature. Such were Kant’s ideas about aesthetics. In the field of politics too Kant contributed heavily as he wrote Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch. The focus of Kant’s political philosophy is on law and on mixed form of government. He is not in favor of democracy as many of his contemporaries but at the same time he is also not in favor of extremely autocratic government. Kant’s political views were mainly aimed at finding ways to end ways and bring long term peace in the world. He was not in favor of wars at all and attempted to give a political philosophy that will end all kinds of war and bring about perpetual peace. Kant's Philosophy The philosophy of Immanuel Kant is complex and covers a wide range of topics. Kant has written on ethics, politics , and on reason and experience. In this section we will talk about each of these three areas in great detail. It is important to understand the social settings as well as the philosophical thought prevalent in the days of Kant in order to understand fully what he is trying to say. Kant was living at a time when enlightenment movement was in its full flow. Philosophers and thinkers had started to celebrate the power of reason and logic in the field of metaphysics and philosophy.