Kant, Immanuel
Kant, Immanuel
Bio Sketch
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was a German philosopher of the Enlightenment, founder of critical philosophy. Kant's critical project tested the viability of ideas to ascertain how they can have constructive effect on the world. His work spans epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, and political philosophy. Kant grounded his vision using the architectural metaphor of the modest "dwelling house" rather than speculative "castles in the sky."
Key Works
- Critique of Pure Reason (1781)
- Critique of Practical Reason (1788)
- Critique of Judgment (1790)
Key Concepts
Relevance to Geoffrey's Research
Kant provides foundations for thinking about cosmopolitics, sustainability, and the ethical dimensions of architecture. His concept of the sublime offers an expanded notion of architectural experience beyond beauty.
Source Support
- source-notes/morgan-kant-for-architects
- source-notes/kidder-gadamer-for-architects
- Ornament and Order (Soulillou 2002/2006) — Kant as the ornament argument's warrant and its genealogical carrier: the desert island ("a man abandoned on a desert island would not enjoy the pleasures of ornamentation," quoted p. 316) as the limit case proving ornament's sociality ("To ornament there must be two. Ornament is born under the gaze of another," p. 316); the pure decorative at the pole of the free ("beauty is not subject to the demands of a concept, as is the case… with the beauty of a building," p. 318); and "art is that which is realized through freedom" carrying "in itself the age-old opposition between the free and the non-free" (p. 318) — Kant's aesthetic doctrine read as the displaced surface of the free/not-free status opposition (see free-and-not-free, aesthetic-judgment).
