Immanuel Kant's radical philosophy

Use your brain! With that message, Immanuel Kant called on people to think for themselves. Born 300 years ago in Königsberg, Prussia, he developed his philosophy in a world of absolutist rulers. He confidently called on people to stop allowing themselves to be treated like "dumb animals" by politicians and the church.

And he was almost shockingly modern: Kant wanted world peace ensured by treaties between nations. His motto was “Make laws, not war.” That made Kant a pioneer of modern international law. If it were up to him, there wouldn’t even be standing armies to threaten other countries.

In addition, Kant set ethical norms for us all, including in everyday life: he demanded that no one should be used as a means to an end, that no one should be instrumentalized. This idea has become famous as the “Categorical Imperative.”

But it’s also true that some of Kant’s views would today be considered racist, antisemitic and sexist – and completely contradictory to his own philosophy. As progressive as he was in some areas, in others he was simply a product of his era and environment.

Yet, as an old man, Kant was fervently committed to global justice, and it’s astonishing how many of his ideas sound almost utopian, even in the 21st century. In 1795, he called for “world citizenship,” a kind of right of visitation for all people on Earth: freedom of movement without passports or visas. And he wanted refugees to be taken in.

Immanuel Kant: an amazing thinker who still has a lot to say to us 300 years after his birth!

#Kant #philosophy #enlightenment
#dwhistoryandculture

00:00 Intro
00:56 Who was Kant and what time did he live in?
04:40 Sapere aude! - Kant's rule of life
06:35 Kant's moral system: The Categorical Imperative
08:35 Kant's view on political justice
10:47 Kant's solution for peace
12:28 The racism of Kant
15:33 Hope in Kant's philosophy

[baehongkim]

It's inspiring to see how his ideas about thinking for ourselves and global interconnectedness are still so relevant today!
In Seogwipo, Korea's southernmost small city without a university, a lecture on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason is being held for citizens to commemorate the 300th anniversary of his birth by Jeju City Lifelong Education Center.

[kizitomichael]

Very insightful and quite balanced video. Thank you Aya and Sabine.

[xenocampanoli]

It's not just cowardice. It's also just fatigue.

[elizabethclark]

Will have to start reading his work, this programme should be available in schools to introduce the ideas and ideals of reason, thought and learning, especially tolerance. Thank you for reintroducing Kant to me as he is briefly touched on in sociology and psychology.

[saeiddavatolhagh]

Had Emmanuel Kant lived today he would have likely said "Mainstream media such as DW have taken away the inherent right of the people to think for themselves". 😅

[soundslikerstinla]

Great thought-provoking breakdown of Kant, his life, his times, and his ideas many of which are very worth contemplating and applying today. Thank you, Sabine and Aya.

[michaelkurak]

If you think that you have found an inconsistency in Kant between his claims regarding race and his claims regarding freedom/morality, I suggest that you probably have an incomplete understanding of his work. On this point, it also helps to remember that Kant was, in large part, dependent upon others for his information regarding other cultures. He was apparently an avid reader of travel literature.

[beepblloop]

This is a good introduction to some of Kant's ideas, if you want to know more then the best place to go next would be his books!

[huapinglu-adler]

I'm one of the four Kant scholars featured in this video. Now I regret that I agreed to do the interview: I feel as though I was being used as a token, a mouthpiece to talk about Kant's racist views only to have these dismissed as merely "peripheral" parts of Kant's system that are and should ultimately be crowded out by the supposed "core" of that system (this is the standard but rarely critically reflected move that people make to evade the topic of Kant's racism). In my extensive conversation with the DW journalist who interviewed me, as well as in my book Kant, Race, and Racism (OUP 2023), I explained at pains why there is NO CONTRADICTION between Kant's moral universalism and his racist worldview: his extremely complex and sophisticated philosophical system is capacious enough to accommodate BOTH. But the video doesn't even mention that part of my interview.

I understand that the journalists who made this video had to make editorial decisions about what to include and what to exclude. But the agenda here is problematic: I get the impression that it's intended overall to glorify Kant and keep him on the pedestal exactly as he has always stood, so that whatever blemish that's superficially mentioned in passing gets completely overshadowed--and supposedly overcome--by the good parts of his philosophy.

By the way, and this is important, here is the exact version of Kant's Formula of Humanity: “So act that you use HUMANITY, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end, never merely as a means." In the video, Susan Neiman turned this into a command to treat other HUMAN BEINGS as ends in themselves. This is a misrepresentation of the formula. There is an important conceptual difference between "humanity" (in abstracto) and "human being" (in concreto) for Kant, especially as it pertains to his pure moral philosophy. I won't bore anyone with details here. For those who are interested, you may consult my late advisor Henry Allison's Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals: A Commentary (OUP 2011). Understanding that conceptual difference is also key to understanding WHY there is no contradiction between the teachings of Kant's pure moral philosophy and his racist worldview. I talk about this in the very first chapter of my book.

[capuchinhos]

While the existence of God cannot be proved or disproved through empirical means, according to Kant, belief in God is necessary for his ethical model to function effectively and for moral principles to have meaning and significance.

[bhavtosh]

DW, great work👍👍👍👍
You should make channel
for philosphy loving people
also.

[kifkroker]

"And he wanted refugees to be taken in."
I wonder if he lived today in former Prussia now Germany!

[willieluncheonette]

" I am reminded of a great German philosopher, Immanuel Kant. He is a specimen of those people who are absolutely in the mind. He lived according to mind so totally that people used to set their watches, whenever they saw Immanuel Kant going to the university. Never — it may rain, it may rain fire, it may rain cats and dogs, it may be utterly cold, snow falling … Whatever the situation, Kant will reach the university at exactly the same time all the year round, even on holidays. Such a fixed, almost mechanical … He would go on holiday at exactly the same time, remain in the university library, which was specially kept open for him, because otherwise what would he do there the whole day? And he was a very prominent, well-known philosopher, and he would leave the university at exactly the same time every day.

One day it happened … It had rained and there was too much mud on the way — one of his shoes got stuck in the mud. He did not stop to take the shoe out because that would make him reach the university a few seconds later, and that was impossible. He left the shoe there. He just arrived with one shoe. The students could not believe it. Somebody asked, “What happened to the other shoe?”

He said, “It got stuck in the mud, so I left it there, knowing perfectly well nobody is going to steal one shoe. When I return in the evening, then I will pick it up. But I could not have been late.”

A woman proposed to him: “I want to be married to you” — a beautiful young woman. Perhaps no woman has ever received such an answer, before or after Immanuel Kant. Either you say, “Yes, ” or you say, “No. Excuse me.” Immanuel Kant said, “I will have to do a great deal of research.”

The woman asked, “About what?”

He said, “I will have to look in all the marriage manuals, all the books concerning marriage, and find out all the pros and cons — whether to marry or not to marry.”

The woman could not imagine that this kind of answer had ever been given to any woman before. Even no is acceptable, even yes, although you are getting into a misery, but it is acceptable. But this kind of indifferent attitude towards the woman — he did not say a single sweet word to her. He did not say anything about her beauty, his whole concern was his mind. He had to convince his mind whether or not marriage is logically the right thing.

It took him three years. It was really a long search. Day and night he was working on it, and he had found three hundred reasons against marriage and three hundred reasons for marriage. So the problem even after three years was the same.

One friend suggested out of compassion, “You wasted three years on this stupid research. In three years you would have experienced all these six hundred, without any research. You should have just said yes to that woman. There was no need to do so much hard work. Three years would have given you all the pros and cons — existentially, experientially.”

But Kant said, “I am in a fix. Both are equal, parallel, balanced. There is no way to choose.”

The friend suggested, “Of the pros you have forgotten one thing: that whenever there is a chance, it is better to say yes and go through the experience. That is one thing more in favor of the pros. The cons cannot give you any experience, and only experience has any validity.”

He understood, it was intellectually right. He immediately went to the woman’s house, knocked on her door. Her old father opened the door and said, “Young man, you are too late. You took too long in your research. My girl is married and has two children.” That was the last thing that was ever heard about his marriage. From then on no woman ever asked him, and he was not the kind of man to ask anybody. He remained unmarried."

[daveash]

Previously a college student and a concrete worker, I was aiming at a double major in philosophy and psychology to stay afloat. Along this path, I accomplished a scholarship and fell in love with other schools of thought -sociology, and physiology, to name a few.

However, I now see things like a "school-to-prison pipeline" and how one's acquisition can affect an individual's aspiration, which takes a toll. I would fill pages in a moleskin and be an avid hiker and reader—having read Kierkegaard and Kant as well as Camus and Nietzsche. Though I plan to still fulfill an education in these disciplines, I now see a skeptical growth as I'm left with the tertiary question of "if it cannot make money, is it worth it?"

[mikemondano]

So, Kant told us what we should think and how we should think it.

[JohnLoty]

Thank you for this excellent presentation. Unfortunately today there is as much, if not more, challenge to "thinking for one's self". I don't see any, or not much, evidence of any authority persons/figures encouraging people to think for themselves.
What struck me in particular was the fact that notwithstanding his high intellect and reasoning ability, the hidden influential authority of some contempary societal 'norms' or 'beliefs' escaped his scrutiny.

[seanbrennan]

If Kant ever came back and saw how the media supresses free thought, he'd never stop vomiting.

[sokatsoi]

When I think about what he said at the end, Kant thought in a way that was consistent and in line with what he said at the beginning. What I take from this is the importance of moderation. The second thing I take from this is that the development of each individual's thought is a journey. This requires a determination to continue to seek the truth without fear of contradicting what you say, and to know in order to know (Sapere aude). Finally, I realize that there is not much difference between what Kant said in those days and today.

[beatrixpluhar]

😊Thanks ✌️👍😊Kant was a superstar philosopher 🌹❤️Awesome video 📝📚🌍

[Nedwin]

Sapere Aude: Dare To Know!! Kant's thoughts are just amazing.