Book 3: Chapter 20, Kant Summary and Analysis

In the eighteenth century philosophy was mostly in the hands of the British empiricists. They were represented by Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Although they were in conflict, they were socially minded, self-assertive, not anxious for power, being in favor of tolerance. Their temper was social and their theories resulted in subjectivism although such practices were employed previously.

German idealism was connected with the romantic movement that was apparent in Fichte as well as in Schelling.

Kant, who founded German idealism emphasized the critique of knowledge as part of reaching philosophical conclusions. He considered matter as subject to mind that was the only existing thing. He rejected utilitarian ethics and favored systems that were held by abstract arguments. The scholastic tone was missing in the French and English philosophers, such as Kant, Fichte, and Hegel.

Immanuel Kant (1724-...