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K

KANT, IMMANUEL (1724–1804). Kant
challenged the traditional metaphysics
and epistemology of his day, creating
a new, “transcendental” system that
responded to both the rationalists and the
empiricists leading up to him. The pri-
mary goal of Kant’s critical philosophy
was to make room for faith by placing
limits on human reason’s ability to gain
knowledge, while avoiding Hume’s claims
about non-rational belief. His Critique of
Pure Reason (1781, 2nd ed., 1787) argued
that traditional metaphysics fails because
the mind contributes forms for all knowl-
edge (namely, space, time, and 12 cate-
gories, including causation); empirical
knowledge therefore pertains not to
things themselves (the noumenal world)
but to constructions of the mind (the
phenomenal world). The self is a neces-
sary presupposition of all knowledge, yet
it cannot be proven to exist. Likewise, the-
oretical arguments for God’s existence all
fail; but so must any attempt to disprove
God’s existence. Theistic belief thereby
remains a viable option, but stands in
need of a new grounding.

Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason

(1788) defended a new moral theory,

whereby freedom gives rise to an inwardly

manifested moral law (or categorical

imperative) that requires universal max-

ims to be employed in a manner such that

persons are respected and treated as ends

in themselves. To explain how morally

good choices can be rational in the face of

our apparently unjust world, one must

adopt practical faith in a future life

wherein a just God ensures that happi-

ness and virtue will be in concord. While

he recognized that this practical argu-

ment cannot yield theoretically valid con-

clusions, Kant thought it effectively

grounds practical conviction: whoever

tries to be good, while believing moral

action is rational, acts as if such a God

actually exists.

In Critique of Judgment (1790), Kant

attempted to bridge the first two Critiques

by portraying our experiences of purpo-

siveness (e.g., beauty, the sublime, natural

organisms) as synthesizing nature and

freedom. This paves the way for a teleo-

logically rich moral theology that regards