The impact of kant's thought was surprisingly quick and immediate and strong. By the mid 17 nineties, there are journals set up dedicated to his thought. His thought has become indicative of german philosophy in general. But at the same time, there is a range of really remarkable thinkers who are taking kan's thought and developing it. The main thing that most of these thinkers have an issue with is the division between appearances and things in themselves. Our minds don't bring reality into existence that is explained by things in themselves - he says.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the insight into our relationship with the world that Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) shared in his book The Critique of Pure Reason in 1781. It was as revolutionary, in his view, as when the Polish astronomer Copernicus realised that Earth revolves around the Sun rather than the Sun around Earth. Kant's was an insight into how we understand the world around us, arguing that we can never know the world as it is, but only through the structures of our minds which shape that understanding. This idea, that the world depends on us even though we do not create it, has been one of Kant’s greatest contributions to philosophy and influences debates to this day.
The image above is a portrait of Immanuel Kant by Friedrich Wilhelm Springer
With
Fiona Hughes
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Essex
Anil Gomes
Associate Professor and Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Trinity College, Oxford
And
John Callanan
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at King’s College London
Producer: Simon Tillotson