Immanuel Kant's Influence On Modern Philosophy

Immanuel Kant is one of the most influential modern philosophers because he laid the groundwork of modern philosophy and works impacted modern philosophers after him and still impact modern philosophy today. Kant bases his ethics on duty, rationality, and motive. Kant bases his epistemology on priori knowledge, posteriori knowledge and the world as it relates to the mind. Kant believed that certain actions could not be justifiably done and where thus prohibited. Even if these actions could help, protect or simply bring happiness to someone. Kant argues that these actions such as lying, theft, and murder cannot be justified in any case because the act is inherently immoral. “For Kantians, there are two questions that we must ask ourselves whenever

The second question asks, “Does my action respect the goals of human beings rather than merely using them for my own purposes” (csus.edu). The second part of the question relates to Kant’s view that it is immoral to treat people as a means, rather we should treat then as an ends. Both of these questions give us a good understanding of Kantian ethics. Kant also believes that the true morality of a person lies in their motives and not by the consequence, good or bad, of their action. Even if an action brings nothing but a good outcome, if the person had bad intentions or a purely selfish intent, then the act would still be immoral. This also applies to acting with the best intentions in an action but the result becomes harmful. This is where Kant receives the most criticism for his philosophy, because according to Kant even lying in order to prevent harm or even save a life is still immoral because the consequence doesn’t matter, only the motivation. Kant furthers his ethics with categorical imperatives, which is an unconditional command that even if it would be in my best interest to disobey, I may not cheat. The connection between morality and categorical imperatives is that “Morality must be based on the categorical imperative because morality is such that you are commanded by it, and is such that