KANT THE CRITIC (1724 - 1804 ) "Mind is the law-giver to nature."

Kant was a professional German philosopher who spent his whole professional life lecturing at the university of his home town, Königsberg. His highly original work covered many aspects of traditional philosophy including metaphysics, ethics and aesthetics.

The publication of "Critique of Pure Reason" marked the beginning of his "Critical" period during which he published the most significant and original works, the result of some 10 years of intense meditation. With this work, Kant asserted that he had accomplished a "Copernican revolution" in philosophy. It was followed with the publication of other ground-breaking works, including "The Critique of Practical Reasoning" (1788), after which, Kant was venerated throughout Europe.

Kant's metaphysical system aimed to settle the dispute between the rationalists with their emphasis on reason as the source of true knowledge and the empiricists with their emphasis on experience. Kant postulated a synthesis between experience and reason whereby the human self or transcendental ego, constructs knowledge from both sensory impressions and from universal concepts called categories that it imposes upon them.

MAJOR WORKS

• "Universal Natural History And Theory On The Heavens" (1755)
• "Dreams of A Spirit-Seer" (1766)
• "Inaugural Dissertation" (1770)
• "The Critique of Pure Reason" (1781).
• "Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals" (1785)
• "Critique of Practical Reason" (1788)
• "Critique of Judgement" (1790)
• "Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science" (1786)
• "Religion within the Bounds of Reason Alone" (1793)
• "Perpetual Peace" (1795)
• "Introduction to the Metaphysics of Morals" (1797), often translated in two parts: "The Metaphysical Principles of Right" and "Metaphysical Principles of Virtue"