Lecture 6: Awakening from the Dogmatic Slumber
Immanuel Kant and the Kantian Revolution
Context: Kant’s Turning Point
- 1763: Kant reads Rousseau and Hume
- Rousseau: corrected Kant’s prejudice, inspired respect for humanity.
- Hume: awakened Kant from his “dogmatic slumber” by showing the limits of metaphysics and rationalism.
- Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 2nd ed. 1787) → landmark text, took 18 years to develop.
Kant’s Goals
- Rescue science from Hume’s skepticism.
- Preserve religion from Enlightenment rationalist attacks.
- Provide a new foundation for morality.
- Achieve this through a philosophical revolution.
The Copernican Revolution in Philosophy
- Traditional assumption: knowledge conforms to objects (objectivism).
- Kant’s reversal: objects conform to our knowledge (subjectivism).
- We do not know reality-in-itself (noumena), only phenomena as structured by our minds.
Phenomena vs. Noumena
- Phenomena: the world as it appears, structured by human faculties (space, time, causality).
- Noumena: reality as it is in itself — unknowable to us.
Key Philosophical Moves
- Space and time → not external realities but forms of human intuition.
- Causality & identity → not discovered in objects but imposed by the mind.
- Science: possible because our faculties structure experience in regular, law-like ways.
- Metaphysics: limited; cannot know ultimate reality (noumenal).
Implications for Religion & Morality
- Religion: God, free will, and immortality cannot be proven — but cannot be disproven either.
- Leaves room for faith.
- Morality: requires free will → possible in the noumenal realm.
- Famous phrase: “I had therefore to deny knowledge, in order to make room for faith.”
Kant’s Ethics
- Humans are not naturally good; morality requires strict principles.
- Categorical Imperative:
- Moral laws must be universal, unconditional, and rationally self-imposed.
- “Act only on that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”
- Morality = obeying duty for its own sake, not for consequences.
Kant on Politics & Obedience
- Kant complied with Prussian censorship → argued subjects must obey authority, even unjust commands.
- Influenced by religious notions of obedience (Eve’s disobedience as archetype of sin).
- Education: strict discipline; children must learn duty and obedience early (contrasts Locke’s liberal model).
Legacy & Interpretations
- Moses Mendelssohn: Kant as the “all-destroyer” (ended hopes of objective metaphysics).
- Hölderlin: Kant as the “Moses of our nation,” leading to a new promised land.
- Hegel: saw Kant as opening the way to a new German philosophical revolution.
Review Questions
- How did Rousseau and Hume each “awaken” Kant?
- What is the difference between phenomena and noumena?
- Why did Kant describe his philosophy as a “Copernican revolution”?
- How does Kant’s view leave room for both science and faith?
- What is the categorical imperative, and how does it differ from hypothetical imperatives?
- Why did Kant accept political censorship under Prussia?
- How does Kant’s educational philosophy compare with John Locke’s?