. 1724–1804. German philosopher who spent all his life in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad). He is often regarded as synthesizing the ‘British EMPIRICIST’ and ‘Continental RATIONALIST’ schools by standing back from the questions they asked (‘What is the nature of the world?’, ‘How do we know about the world?’) and saying we must first give a critique of our faculties; he asks what it is possible for any mind like the human mind to know. Hence his philosophy after 1781 is often called the ‘critical’ philosophy. Much of his philosophy centres round his defence of synthetic a priori propositions, see ANALYTIC. He also tried to derive morality from reason alone, and to elaborate a notion of the self compatible with our possession of freewill.
