Seminar 2: Seminar Paper on Kant and Hegel

This week it was my turn to give a seminar paper on the Eighteenth Century, German philosophers, Kant and Hegel. Below are the notes i made:

Chapter 20: Kant

· Immanuel Kant (1724- 1804)

· Had a very academic upbringing

· Considered the greatest of all modern philosophers and the founder of German Idealism.

· It’s suggested that by studying Kant first, it’s therefore, easier to grasp the concepts of Fichte and Hegel.

· Educated in the Wolfian version of Leibniz’s philosophy but abandoned it in order to follow philosophers such as Rousseau and Hume.

· He followed Rousseau’s works so closely that it disrupted his regular timetable and habits for several days as he read and re-read Rousseau’s books. The beauty of his style prevented him from noticing the content.

· One of his most important books, ‘Critique of Pure Reason’ outlines the first of his many beliefs, that everything perceived has two natures, noumenal and phenomenal. Which is where objects exist whether they are in our perception or not. Thus addressing the problem of Causality in empiricism, where there is no causality in nature as everything is only in our minds, it doesn’t really exist.

· Kant believed that the noumenal world is perceived by ‘intuition’, especially the aesthetic reaction to art/beauty. E.g. Keats said, “Beauty is truth; Truth is beauty.”

· The idea is that even when things are not perceived they are still there and when they are perceived they pass into the phenomenal world.

· To support this idea Kant says that, intuition is objective and our subjective feelings are our connection to the noumenal world and our aesthetic response proves that objects still exist when not perceived.

· Kant suggested the 12 categories of perception and strongly believed in The Copernican Revolution, which stated that the mind actively shapes the universe, which is the opposite belief to empiricism. Therefore, the universe looks the way it does because of the perceptive apparatus of the mind/brain; it’s not really like that in nature.

· In Terms of morality, Kant argued for The Categorical Imperative, which he believes comes in different forms. The Categorical imperative emphasises the consequences of your actions rather than your intentions.

· It is based on universalisation, the idea that any decision you make will become a universal rule, which everyone will live by. Therefore, your actions must be “right” and this is based on the idea that everyone knows right from wrong, no matter how they act.

· Kant calls this “The Moral Law Within”- everyone has it.

· This, therefore, demonstrates how Kant completely dismisses utilitarianism as he believes everyone is equal and that we all know the difference between right and wrong.

Chapter 22: Hegel

· Georg Hegel (1770-1831)

· One of the creators of German idealism.

· Devout Christian and philosopher of European Supremacy.

· His system could not have arisen if Kant’s hadn’t existed.

· He argued that any possible idea contains its own negation- each idea contains its opposite.

· If there was Thesis of: Existence the Anti-thesis would be: Non-existence and therefore, the Synthesis would be: History or “becoming”.

· This is because Hegel believed that everything was constantly changing.

· He was a teleological thinker and believed these processes have a purpose and that purpose is a steady progress towards paradise- reunited with God and live happily ever after.