Immanuel Kant
1724-1804 · German Idealism · Household name
Kant was a Prussian philosopher who argued that space, time and cause are shapes your own mind imposes on experience. You meet the world only as it appears to you, never as it is in itself. His test for whether an act is right comes down to one question. Could you want everyone to act on the reason you are acting on? He built duty on that test and called it the categorical imperative.
Signature
The position Kant is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Universals
- mildly between Realism and Nominalism
- Ethics Basis
- Categorical Imperative
Positions on the 17 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- leans Purposeful (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- mildly leans Individualism (69 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Mind
- leans Beyond Brain (75 on a 0–100 scale from Brain Only to Beyond Brain)
- The Divine
- mildly leans Indescribable (63 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Beauty
- mildly leans Objective (66 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Universals
- mildly between Realism and Nominalism (57 on a 0–100 scale from Realism to Nominalism)
- Meaning
- mildly between Constructed and Inherent (50 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- mildly leans Vertical (37 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Ground of Being
- mildly leans Transcendence (69 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- leans Objective (75 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Nature
- leans Mastery (25 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Polity
- leans Liberalism (81 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- Ethics
- strongly leans Means (94 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- War
- mildly between Pacifism and Militarism (47 on a 0–100 scale from Pacifism to Militarism)
- Ignorance
- leans Bondage (18 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
- Conviction
- leans Certain (75 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
- Allegiance
- strongly leans Global (100 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
3 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Kant refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Deism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Representative Democracy / Federal Republic / One World Order
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Virtue
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Moral Realism
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - Perception
- Conceptual Mediation
What do we directly perceive? - Knowledge
- Pure Reason
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Categorical Imperative
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Libertarian Free Will
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Eternal First Cause
What is the origin of reality? - Time
- Linear Progressive
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Economy
- Market Capitalism
What is the ideal organization of economic life? - Authority
- Natural Law
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Representation
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Paradox
- Limit
What is the status of paradox? - Law
- Social Contract / Cosmopolitan Rights
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Death
- Agnostic
What happens at death? - Role of Emotion
- Obstacle to Reason
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Redeemably Corrupted
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Humanity
What is your primary bond and loyalty?