Kant: A Biography of a Philosopher

Author: Manfred Kuhn
Publisher: Commercial Press
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: This is the most complete biography of Kant in fifty years. Kant (Immanuel Kant) is a giant in the pantheon of Western philosophers, with an unparalleled influence on contemporary philosophy. As everyone knows, Kant spent his entire life in Prussia in seclusion, like a typical university professor. It was thus assumed that Kant was merely a pure thinker, without his own life, or at least nothing remarkable to say. Professor Kuhn's work breaks this myth. Kant's life (1724-1804) is almost the entire 18th century, his adulthood having experienced the most dramatic changes in the Western world. Many of these changes still resonate in our world today, and many modern perspectives on the world originate from that era. From Kant's biography, we can see that his philosophy was actually a response to the new concept of modernity. His academic life reflected the development of academia, politics, and science at the time, from the literary "Sturm und Drang" movement to the American Revolution and the French Revolution. Kuhn synthesizes modern Kantian studies, guiding readers through the journey Kant once took, from a scholar narrowly exploring the metaphysical foundations of Newtonian science to a great thinker defending the moral order of the post-Enlightenment world.