Kant's Philosophical Worldview

Kant's Critiques

In this course Dr Sacha Golob (King’s College London) explores Kant’s profound influence on western philosophy through his three Critiques. In the first module, we introduce Kant’s philosophical worldview and the nature of Critique. In the second module, we examine Kant’s response to the debate between rationalism and empiricism, and his new category of knowledge. In the third module we examine synthetic a priori knowledge and transcendental idealism, and begin to investigate how this reorientates philosophical enquiry in the Enlightenment period. In the fourth module we examine the implications of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason for the metaphysics of morals, before turning to practical philosophy in the fifth module. In the sixth and final module, we analyse Kant’s views on beauty, art and the sublime in the context of his wider philosophy, and comment on the effects that Kant's aesthetics have had on art and critical practice.

Kant's Philosophical Worldview

In this module, we introduce Kant’s thought, focusing particularly on (i) the nature of critique (ii) Kant’s view of human beings (iii) the distinction between human beings and non-human animals (iv) the political implications of Kant’s work (v) tensions between Kant’s philosophy, his personal views, and modern liberalism.