Kant: Philosophy in the German Enlightenment
Context: Kant and the German Enlightenment
Kant, a pivotal German philosopher of the eighteenth century, developed his philosophy within the German Enlightenment. While the Enlightenment is often associated with France (Voltaire, Rousseau, enlightened despotism, anticlericalism, atheism, and the French Revolution), it also flourished in England and Germany.
The English Enlightenment, while advocating for deism and natural religion (as seen in Locke), was less anticlerical. Kant, though a believer,
Read MoreNietzsche’s Critique of Western Metaphysics
Nietzsche’s Critique of Socrates and Plato
For Nietzsche, the 5th century BC marks the decline of Greek culture, specifically the decline of tragedy as a genre. The Greeks drew their idea of the world from tragedy. This worldview was reflected in the juxtaposition of two existential principles, embodied in the figures of Apollo and Dionysus. Apollo is the god of light, reason, order, and harmony. At a racial and existential level, the Apollonian is the principle that refers to the man who is guided
Marxism: Class Struggle, Alienation, and Capitalism
Class Struggle and Capitalism
Marxism posits that the bourgeoisie and proletariat classes have antagonistic, or contrary, interests. Marx believed that the essence of humanity lies in labor, through which individuals create and transform their world. However, capitalism has transformed work into a commodity to be bought and sold.
In a pre-capitalist artisan economy, the worker owned the goods produced, and the wealth generated from their sale belonged entirely to them. With industrialization, significant
Read MoreSaint Augustine’s Philosophy: Understanding God and Humanity
Platonic Influences and Christian Theology
Saint Augustine’s methodology is based on Plato’s ideas, but reconciled with Christianity, particularly in relation to God. Augustine did not believe that ideas existed separately; he posited that they must be someone’s idea, as they are not substances. Therefore, ideas can only exist in the mind of God. God is not limited to ordering anything; He created because the ideas are in His mind. This concept replaces Plato’s Demiurge. Augustine also replaced the
Read MoreSaint Augustine: God, Creation, Knowledge, and the Soul
The Philosophical Attitude of Saint Augustine
Saint Augustine’s major concerns are God and the soul, believing that man has the will to reach God. When he speaks of Christian truth, Saint Augustine makes no question of the relationship between reason and faith, which are sources of true knowledge—separate but complementary and mutually supportive.
God
There are two issues to address:
- The Existence of God: There are several arguments for God’s existence:
- The order and beauty of the world.
- The existence
Kant’s Critique: Limits of Rational Knowledge and Metaphysics
Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason
Kant devoted his major work, Critique of Pure Reason, to resolving the question of the limits of rational knowledge of reality. The problem was that metaphysics did not progress, unlike other sciences. The importance of these issues prevents us from dismissing its study due to this initial difficulty. The strategy: identify the conditions that enable mathematics and physics to be sciences, and then check whether metaphysics meets those conditions.