Philosopher · Modern
Immanuel Kant
1724–1804 · Transcendental idealism
Lutheran by upbringing; his religion is “within the bounds of bare reason,” and he avoided church services.
Kant held that the mind supplies the forms (space, time, the categories) under which alone things can be known, so that God, freedom and immortality lie beyond theoretical knowledge and are instead postulates of practical reason. Morality is the self-legislation of a rational will under the categorical imperative, and religion is reduced to morality.
Why he matters: Maréchal, Rahner and Lonergan built “transcendental Thomism” in dialogue with him; his critique of the proofs is what Vatican I's teaching on the natural knowledge of God answers; and his “autonomy” is the view of moral law that Veritatis Splendor 36–41 and Benedict XVI's Regensburg Address reject.
Where to be careful
His denial that reason can know God is contrary to Dei Filius (ch. 2); the autonomy of ethics is rejected in Veritatis Splendor 36–41; his reduction of ecclesiastical faith, sacraments and prayer to “fetish-faith” and “superstitious delusion” is incompatible with Trent; the Critique of Pure Reason was placed on the Index (1827).
Reading
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Groundwork of the Metaphysics of MoralsImmanuel Kant · The categorical imperative and autonomy.
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Religion within the Bounds of Bare ReasonImmanuel Kant · Radical evil, and the reduction of church to ethical commonwealth.
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After Virtue (chs. 4–6)Alasdair MacIntyre · Why the Enlightenment project of justifying morality had to fail; a Catholic diagnosis.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each question the test asks.