Kant, Immanuel

German philosopher. He believed that knowledge is not merely an aggregate of sense impressions but is dependent on the conceptual apparatus of the human understanding, which is itself not derived from experience. In ethics, Kant argued that right action cannot be based on feelings or inclinations but conforms to a law given by reason, the categorical imperative.

It was in his Kritik der reinen Vernunft/Critique of Pure Reason (1781) that Kant inaugurated a revolution in philosophy by turning attention to the mind's role in constructing our knowledge of the objective world. He also argued that God's existence could not be proved theoretically.

His other main works are Kritik der praktischen Vernunft/Critique of Practical Reason (1788) and Kritik der Urteilskraft/Critique of Judgement (1790).