Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant was a philosopher from Germany who lived during the 1700s. He was born in 1724 in the city of Königsberg, which was then part of Prussia. A philosopher is a person who studies ideas about thinking, knowledge, and reality. Kant spent most of his life in the same city. He is known for writing detailed works about how the human mind understands the world.

Kant studied at the University of Königsberg. He later became a teacher there and taught for many years. He taught subjects such as logic, mathematics, and natural science. Logic is the study of clear thinking and correct reasoning. Kant lived a regular life and followed a strict daily routine. He spent much of his time reading, writing, and teaching.

One of Kant’s main questions was how people gain knowledge. Knowledge means what a person knows or understands. Kant explained that knowledge comes from both experience and the mind. Experience includes what people see, hear, and feel. The mind also plays a role by organizing these experiences. Kant said that the mind uses basic structures, such as space and time, to understand events.

Kant wrote his most famous book in 1781. It is called Critique of Pure Reason. In this book, he examined the limits of human understanding. A critique is a careful study of something. Kant asked what people can know and what they cannot know. He explained that some things can be known through experience, while other ideas come from reasoning alone.

Kant also wrote about rules for thinking and acting. He believed that reason helps people decide what is right or wrong. Reason means the ability to think clearly and carefully. Kant explained that rules should be based on clear principles that apply to everyone. He wrote these ideas in works such as Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Metaphysics is the study of basic ideas about reality.

Immanuel Kant never married and did not travel far from his home city. He continued writing until late in life. He died in 1804 in Königsberg. His ideas influenced later thinkers in philosophy and other fields. Kant is remembered for careful writing about the limits and abilities of the human mind.