Immanuel Kant Autobiography

Immanuel Kant Autobiography

Full Name: Mr. Immanuel Kant (Kahnt)
Date of Birth: April 22, 1724
Place of Birth: Kaliningrad, Russia
Died: February 12, 1804
Place of Death: Kaliningrad, Russia
Classification: Scientists & Thinkers


Known by many in the field as the father of modern philosophy, Immanuel Kant questioned many of the assumptions held in his day. He focused much of his work on the realm of human thought, understanding, and potential. His ideas about observation, learning, and experientialism set the precedent for all philosophers who followed him.

Born in the early 1720s, Kant lived in what was known as East Prussia (now a part of Kaliningrad, Russia). There, he was able to secure a teaching position for nearly ten years when he began working at Konigsberg University. He would remain a part of their staff for nearly five decades contributing to the rise and popularity of philosophy of the day.

Not much more is known about Kant’s earlier life. He did go on to having several of his pieces published, although none were an exact autobiography. In his Critique of Pure Reason, he discussed and raised interesting points about human knowledge. Instrumental on Kant’s own ideas was the work of philosopher David Hume, who agreed that human experience could be used for understanding, but that it should not be used to explain every phenomena we encounter in nature or in the real world.

Kant built upon this idea. He stated that new experiences could be formulated based on past experiences because it our past that helps us learn about our future. He believed that the human mind organized events and ideas into categories that could be accessed later to determine how we might react in a certain experience. He came up with the word to describe the paradox of understanding: noumena.

Kant’s own arguments about the existence of God were also not well accepted at his time. He believed that man could not rationalize God because it was not something that we had experienced before. In other words, we might be able to attribute certain characteristics to Him, but it is ultimately limited by our own human understanding of the universe. In essence, we could never come close to truly understanding who God is and predict what He is going to do.