1724-1804
Idealist Philosopher

Education and Career. Few thinkers have exerted so great an influence on the modern world as Immanuel Kant, a child of the Enlightenment who challenged the limits of pure reason. The son of a pietistic craftsman, Kant was born in Konigsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). In school he studied Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and French, as well as mathematics and theology. At sixteen he entered the University of Konigsberg, where he studied for seven years, developing his interests in science and philosophy. Following the death of his father in 1746, financial hardship forced him to leave the university without earning a degree. He found employment as a private tutor in the family of a pastor in the Reformed Church and in his spare time continued to study and work on a dissertation. At age thirty-one, he returned to the university, successfully defended his dissertation...