A Philosopher for the Modern Age
February 12, 2004
Anyone asked to give a list of German philosophers will always include his name. Right up next to Hegel and Marx, Kant is one of Germany's -- if not the world's -- most famous thinkers. Two hundred years after his death in Königsberg (today the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad) Immanuel Kant's writings continue to influence the way people think.
Even if his works such as The Critique of Pure Reason and Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals seem dauntingly complex to the majority of readers, Kant's notions of a "categorical imperative" as the ultimate responsibility of the human will still form the basis for much of contemporary discussion on politics and ethics.
DW-WORLD has put together a collection of texts on Kant, his home town of Königsberg and the philosopher's relevance for the modern age.