Immanuel Kant

German philosopher (1724-1804) · Academics · Died at 79

Immanuel Kant is read about 7,114 times a day, in 184 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 18 October 2026

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The Prussian professor who reframed how humans know anything at all - arguing that space and time aren't out there in the world but structures our minds impose, and that morality binds through reason alone, not divine command.

Academics Academic Philosophy Physics Literature Mathematics Early Modern Era

A life in dates

1804Died12 February 18041785“...happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination, resting solely on empirical grounds.”In their wordsFundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics (1785), Second Section.Read the whole statement

1780“Beneficence is a duty. He who often practices this, and sees his beneficent purpose succeed, comes at last really to love him whom he has benefited.”In their wordsMetaphysical Elements of Ethics (1780). Translated by Thomas Kingsmill Abbott, translation available at Philosophy.eserver.org. FromRead the whole statement

1775“The wish to talk to God is absurd. We cannot talk to one we cannot comprehend - and we cannot comprehend God; we can only believe in Him.”In their wordsA lecture at Königsberg (1775), as quoted in A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (1946)Read the whole statement

“Religion is too important a matter to its devotees to be a subject of ridicule. If they indulge in absurdities, they are to be pitied rather than ridiculed.”In their wordsA lecture at Königsberg (1775), as quoted in A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (1946)Read the whole statement

1724Born22 April 1724

Also in Deutsch

Photos 12

Kant's house in Königsberg in an 1842 painting

The philosopher David Hume by Allan Ramsay

Portrait of Kant by Johann Christoph Frisch, after Johann Gottlieb Becker, c. 1770

Kant with friends, including Christian Jakob Kraus, Johann Georg Hamann, Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel, and Karl Gottfried Hagen

Kant's tomb in Kaliningrad, Russia

In their own words 10

Immanuel Kant

10 statements, newest first

...happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination, resting solely on empirical grounds.
1785, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics (1785), Second Section., Own words
Beneficence is a duty. He who often practices this, and sees his beneficent purpose succeed, comes at last really to love him whom he has benefited.
1780, Metaphysical Elements of Ethics (1780). Translated by Thomas Kingsmill Abbott, translation available at Philosophy.eserver.org. From, Own words
The wish to talk to God is absurd. We cannot talk to one we cannot comprehend - and we cannot comprehend God; we can only believe in Him.
1775, A lecture at Königsberg (1775), as quoted in A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (1946), Own words

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Immanuel Kant

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About this person

Born in Königsberg in 1724, Kant spent his entire life in the same Prussian city, lecturing and writing. In 1781 he published the Critique of Pure Reason, proposing transcendental idealism: we experience only appearances shaped by our own mental categories, never things as they are in themselves. He called it a Copernican shift - objects conform to our intuition, not the reverse. From there he built a system spanning ethics (the categorical imperative binding all rational agents), aesthetics (judgment detached from desire), and politics (perpetual peace through a federation of republics). He died in 1804, leaving modern philosophy rebuilt around the human subject.

Academics born in the 1720s 6

Johann Bernhard Basedow56.1

Charles Bonnet55.4 John Michell53.6

Ferdinando Galiani49.7

David Ruetschmann49.6

Pietro Verri48.8

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