The Essential Kant

Philosophers in 90 Minutes #13

by Paul Strathern

In Kant in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Kant's life and ideas, and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world. The book also includes selections from Kant's work; a brief list of suggested reading for those who wish to push further; and chronologies that place Kant within his own age and in the broader scheme of philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Biography, History, Audiobook, Germany, Psychology

Paperback

First published April 25, 1996

About the author

Paul Strathern (born 1940) is a English writer and academic. He was born in London, and studied at Trinity College, Dublin, after which he served in the Merchant Navy over a period of two years. He then lived on a Greek island. In 1966 he travelled overland to India and the Himalayas. His novel A Season in Abyssinia won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1972.

Besides five novels, he has also written numerous books on science, philosophy, history, literature, medicine and economics.

Reviews

[Maziyar Yf · Rating 2 out of 5]

امانوئل کانت، فیلسوف آلمانی، یکی از بزرگترین متفکران تاریخ بشر و از مهمترین فیلسوفان عصر روشنگری بوده . او با نقد فلسفه سنتی، به خصوص فلسفه ی دکارت، انقلابی در فلسفه ایجاد کرد. کانت فلسفه را بر پایه ی عقل و تجربه بنا نهاد و به بررسی مفاهیمی مانند معرفت، اخلاق، زیبایی و دین پرداخت. نظریه امر مطلق کانت یا قانون اخلاقی مطلق او بارها مورد نقد و بررسی قرار گرفته . به نظر کانت الزامات اخلاقی بر معیار عقلانیت استوارند که او این معیار را امر مطلق می داند .
امر مطلق او یعنی اول جهان شمول بودن یک قانون اخلاقی و دوم انسانیت ، یعنی ریشه داشتن در انسانیت و نه در اهداف شخصی . برای نمونه از نگاه کانت ، دروغ گفتن همواره یک پستی و یک فرومایگی اخلاقی ایست ، این امر جهان شمول است ، یعنی تابع هیج زمان خاصی نیست و هیچ هدف و انگیزه ای هم نمی تواند آنرا توجیه کند . بنابراین از نگاه او انسان ها باید به گونه ای عمل کنند که گویی عملشان می تواند به قانون کلی تبدیل شود .
قانون اخلاقی مطلق کانت چند ویژگی مهم دارد که عقلانی بودن یعنی استوار بودن بر پایه ی عقل و مطلق بودن یعنی که این قانون هیچ استثنایی ندارد و در همه ی شرایط باید رعایت شود را می توان حیاتی و اساسی ترین پایه قانون او دانست .
امر مطلق کانت را در ادبیات و در دو کتاب قلعه مالویل و جزیره ، نوشته روبر مرل نویسنده سرشناس فرانسوی می توان دید . شخصیت اصلی کتاب قلعه مالویل که او هم امانوئل کانت نام دارد در سرتاسر کتاب تلاش بر عمل کردن بر اساس امر اخلاقی مطلق کانت دارد . از نگاه او گویی این قانون اخلاقی باید بر تمام قوانین دیگر، از جمله قوانین اجتماعی و سیاسی، اولویت داشته باشد .نویسنده این گونه با نشان دادن تضاد عقیده او با شخصیت های دیگر داستان که معتقدند قوانین اخلاقی باید بر اساس شرایط و موقعیت‌های خاص تعیین شوند گویی اندیشه های کانت را نقد می کند .
کانت و امر مطلق او در کتاب جزیره ، نمود بیشتری پیدا می کند ، پرسل ، قهرمان داستان او معتقد است که همه انسان‌ها، صرف نظر از نژاد یا موقعیت اجتماعی‌شان، برابر هستند. این ایده با ایده کانت در مورد «امر مطلق اخلاقی» مطابقت دارد که می‌گوید همه انسان‌ها باید با احترام با هم رفتار کنند. پرل هم چنین دزدی و دروغ گفتن را اشتباه می داند واین هم با ایده کانت در مورد «دستورالعمل مطلق اخلاقی» مطابقت دارد که می‌گوید انسان‌ باید همیشه و فارغ از نتایج آن راست بگوید .
بنابراین ، فارغ از درست یا اشتباه بودن امر مطلق کانت ، جناب مرل نشان داده که فلسفه کانت در زندگی روزمره انسان‌ها کاربردی نسبتا گسترده دارد .
اما آشنایی با کانت نوشته پل استراترن به سختی می تواند خواننده را با اندیشه های کانت آشنا کند ، نویسنده به روال معمول خود ، به زندگینامه کانت بیشتر علاقه نشان داده تا آرا و اندیشه های او . استراترن نتوانسته حتی به صورت ابتدایی و مقدماتی ، عقاید کانت را بیان کند ، از این رو کتاب آشنایی با کانت برای خوانندگانی که به دنبال آشنایی حتی ابتدایی با اندیشه های کانت هستند هم چندان مناسب نیست.

[Trevor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to say I was pretty disappointed with this. Look, if I only have 90 minutes to tell people about one of the world’s greatest philosophers, I know how much time I would spend speculating on Kant’s Oedipal Complex – that’s right, no time at all. That so much time is spent in this talking about how boring Kant was as a person gets to be, well, tedious. The guy revolutionised Western Philosophy. I’d be prepared to say that far too much of what came after him was a sotto voce version of what he had previously said. To tell us he didn’t like having his family around would probably have to be about the least interesting thing you could say about Kant – unless, perhaps you could find something to say about his bowel movements. That this is brought up twice beggar’s belief.

The only thing I can say about this is that at least it was better than the book on Hegel – but that is hardly saying anything at all.

[Graychin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim at the local library, looking for a brief refresher.

”It’s difficult to know what to say about Kant’s life. He didn’t really have one (outside his head). Nothing of any real interest happened to him.”

Despite Strathern’s disclaimer, he spends more time on Kant’s uneventful biography than his philosophy. You get a better sense of him as a character of eccentric habits than as a thinker. Perhaps that’s inevitable in a slim volume of 100 pages, I don’t know.

Beyond a general dislike for systematic philosophies and my sympathy for empiricism contra idealism, I offer three reasons for grave suspicion of Kant:

First, he was an awful writer. Reading Kant in his own words is something like chewing gravel and bits of glass, then swallowing it all with a chaser of formaldehyde.

Second, it’s unwise to trust a man famous for his lectures on geography but who never travelled more than forty miles from home. Kant never saw a mountain. Though it was only twenty miles away, he never bothered to visit the sea.

Finally, per Strathern, Kant “was against the reading of novels.” He thought "they caused our thoughts to become ‘fragmentary’ and weakened our memory." I mean, c’mon.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of other reviewers missed the point of the book, I think. Kant's philosophy was boring and verbose, and his contemporaries absolutely despised him. In his decades of teaching and study, he published two philosophical systems, the first was his "masterpiece," and the second has been proven false in most of its points that could be deciphered. He also based his academic lectures on complete fantasy with no actual experience or even study of what he was teaching.

On top of that, Kant's life was full of hypocrisy and self-imposed rigidity. He denied himself most human contact, including his siblings after his parents' deaths. He also argued for universal truths that he defied with his actions (for instance: telling his students not to listen to music while continuing to attend concerts). He was proof that his arguments were false!

I learned a lot about Kant, his life, and his philosophy from this book. It was well-written and presented a difficult and frustrating figure honestly and concisely. I listened to the audiobook, and the reading was clear and confident.

[Jimmy Cline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once again, not incredibly helpful, but it provided me with a few funny autobiographical anecdotes about Kant. These little volumes tend to be odd depending on which philosopher the book is on. With Kant's notoriously unevenftul life in mind, Strathern takes the psychoanalytic approach to explaining Kant's misanthropic breakdown before he died.

"Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. I do not seek or conjecture either of them as if they were veiled obscurities or extravagances beyond the horizon of my vision; I see them before me and connect them immediately with the consciousness of my existence." = I want my mommy.

Yeah, these books are sort of ridiculous. Twenty pages into this thing I realized that I had already read it about a year ago.

[Numo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recomendaría otros libros para acercarse a la figura de Kant, pero supongo que cumple con su función de picarte la curiosidad. En este enlace os dejo la entrevista que realicé a Andrés Nebot, doctor en filosofía, para tratar de introducir algunos conceptos sobre este pensador:
https://go.ivoox.com/rf/68086710

[Ashley Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another installment in Paul Strathern's Philosophers in 90 Minutes series, this does its best to offer background info, a brief synopsis of the philosopher's work, important quotes and a timeline. While I think I have a better grasp of the categorical imperative, the blurbs of Kant's actual writing left me less than enthused. Maybe I'll put Kant on the back burner for now.

[Fatemeh Dehbozorgi · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب مختصری است که یک دید کلی نسبت به کانت و افکار او می دهد.
به عقیده من قسمت آخر کتاب که چند صفحه ای از نوشته های خود کانت آورده شده خیلی بهتر از قسمت های قبلی که سعی در توصیف عقاید کانت دارد هست! به نوعی جاهایی از این قسمت های اول کتاب گیج کننده هستند که حالا نمی دونم به خاطر ترجمه هست یا ماهیت خود کتابه.
به هر حال من از خوندنش راضیم و به عنوان یک شروع برای آشنایی با عقاید کانت و زبان او بسیار مفید هست و ترجمه هم قابل قبول و مناسبه...

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief summary of Kant's work and life, which is really great to get a fuller understanding of who he was and what his most important ideas are. Not ground-breaking, but definitely does what it says on the tin with a style that's easily readable and entertaining.

[Don Incognito · Rating 3 out of 5]

What many reviewers say about this book is true: it offers limited details about Kant's philosophy. But there are clearly reasons for that. Author Paul Strathern's ability to discuss the philosophies in detail is severely restricted by the extremely short length of the books, and this becomes more of a problem when he discusses philosophies written in philosophical jargon by intellectuals who didn't write concisely and comprehensibly (and didn't care). Kant and several other major German philosophers, such as Hegel (who also receives a volume in the 90 Minutes series) wrote this way, and how is Strathern supposed to explain poorly written manuals of complex philosophies in ninety minutes? He makes clear that even other philosophers found Kant's writing incomprehensible. He gives one passage from Kant's Critique of Pure Reason by way of illustration, and it verges on being parody of bad writing:

The apodictical proposition cogitates the assertorical as determined by these very laws of the understanding, consequently affirming as a priori, and in this manner it expresses...

And Critique of Pure Reason is widely considered Kant's masterwork. Kant's unfinished final work in philosophy (Transition from the Metaphysical Foundations of the Natural Sciences to Physics) is apparently even more incomprehensible, so incomprehensible in fact that, according to Strathern, no other philosophers have ever understood it. In more practical scientific and business fields, this problem is why the professionals have technical writers; unfortunately, philosophers don't have tech writers and probably don't want them. However, Strathern adequately explains key points of Kant's philosophy, such as the categorical imperative everyone hears about.

Strathern mentions something which my Philosophy 101 prof didn't see fit to mention about Kant's personal life--the only thing of interest, as Kant really had no life whatsoever. Throughout his adult life, Kant was absolutely repressed emotionally and sexually. It's not clear how this influenced his philosophy (if at all), but there are subtle hints of his repressed emotions behind the philosophies that interested him, such as the Romanticism of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Also the fact that he mocked emotional writing like poetic-sounding prose (one of his early works is a satire of it) and advised his students not to read novels (claiming they "fragmented the memory") or listen to music. But Strathern bluntly says "beneath the facade of the prim academic beat the heart of a closet romantic" ; and when I read two other details--that Kant loved attending concerts and, most importantly, that he regularly worshiped in the local church despite his philosophical system denying the existence of God (on the grounds that it's unverifiable)--I made my own conclusion that Strathern doesn't suggest: that Kant was in many ways a blatant hypocrite.

[Beth E · Rating 3 out of 5]

And interesting presentation and discussion on this mid-1700's philosopher. Rightly accused of such flowery and effusive speech that makes his writings nearly unreadable, his main point was trying to determine if understanding leads to a greater experience, or if experience itself is needed before any understanding can be had. He applies this question not just to life itself, but to math, physics and even religion.

[John Martindale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, the library has a bunch of these "in 90 minutes" audiobooks, and I find I just keep on listening to them even though they continue to be, well, incredibly underwhelming.
I have definitely found William Durant's "The Story of Philosophy" to be a much better summery of famous philosophers lives and ideas, especially on Kant, I wish Durant wrote a whole book on Kant.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un poco ambicioso pretender resumir la obra, o al menos la esencia de un filósofo determinante para la humanidad como lo fue Kant, en un “libro” que se puede leer en noventa minutos, pero también es cierto que hoy, en pleno frenesí de las redes sociales que no dan tregua a lo que no sea contenido vacío y al borde la estupidez, nadie dedicaría su vida a tratar de entender la filosofía kantiana.

En esa convergencia de criterios es donde encuentran su lugar estos libros, que son sin duda valiosos sin pretender exagerar; se requiere justamente tiempo y dedicación para poder extraer la esencia de Kant y hacerla entendible en tan poco tiempo. Pese a sus falencias y su pragmatismo, se puede decir que el autor lo logra, lo cual agradezco enormemente, ya que de hecho, en las anécdotas que él mismo narra, muchos intelectuales del siglo XVIII sintieron en riesgo su salud mental tratando de entender las “críticas de la razón” pura y práctica.

Una lectura refrescante de Kant, que recuerda un poco las clases mediocres de filosofía del colegio, que solo sirvieron para alejar a toda una generación del interés por la comprensión de las dinámicas arcanas de la epistemología, pero que hoy me hacen sentir ganas de dedicar un poco más de tiempo a la metafísica.

[Jericho Eames · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly took me more than 90 minutes to read this thin volume. This thin book is split into his life, this works, and also how his works fit into the timeline of eastern philosophical thought. Honestly, I didn't know much about Kant before picking this up and I still don't understand his philosophy after reading. This book just touches the wider concepts and provides a gateway into further reading. It was interesting to learn that Kant operates like clockwork, being so on time that people in his town relied on him to tell the time, I aspire to have that much control over my time management.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read in the Philosophers in 90 Minutes series. I thought it struck a good balance between describing Kant's life, explaining his ideas, and providing important selections from his writings. (My only complaint: too much focus on attempting to psychoanalyze him.) It was good enough to spark interest in other books in the series. (Kant is also confusing enough that I need to re-read some parts a few times before returning this to the library.)

[John Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview on Kant’s philosophy and his life

[Dylan]

90 mins is too long to spend on Kant's uneventful life, but too short to spend on his impenetrable philosophy. I have to ask myself if it's worth spending any more, tho?

[Larkin Norred · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s been 90 minutes, Kant invented the categorical imperative

[Audra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just read this tonight. I picked it up on a whim, to try to ease back into philosophy. Now I remember why I hated Kant in college. I was also hoping this would be a quick summary of Kant's philosophies, but instead it was more of a biography, with some exerpts of his work.

[Candace · Rating 2 out of 5]

I knew nothing about Kant, so I thought this was good. But then I read some reviews saying that this book misses some big parts of Kant's theories...so maybe it's not good. Since I didn't know anything about Kant before (hence, I read the 90-min book), I can't comment on the book's accuracy.

[Max Frankwicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book helps bring life to a man who’s philosophy helped guide the future philosophy in the Age of Enlightenment. Also the books shows how usually a man Kant was for example he never travelled more then 40 miles out of his home town of Königsberg.

[Madeline Mace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow I find this to be a very sad life… void of all relationships. His writings were extremely dense and I did not understand much of it but it was a broad overview of his life and brief summery of his teaching/views.

[Arash Kamangir · Rating 5 out of 5]

با کانت تموم کردم این مجموعه رو.

[#DÏ4B7Ø Chinnamasta-Bhairav · Rating 5 out of 5]

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To SEE a WORLD in a Grain of Sand,
And a HEAVEN in a Wild Flower,
Hold INFINITY in the palm of your hand
And ETERNITY in an Hour"
~ William Blake ~

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“Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two my life flows.” Nisargadatta Maharaj

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Form is Emptiness; Emptiness is form.
Form is not different than Emptiness;
Emptiness is not different than form
~ Heart Sutra ~

Like the ocean and its waves,
inseparable yet distinct

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" I and The Father are one,
I am The Truth,
The Life and The Path.”

Like a river flowing from its source,
connected and continuous

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Thy kingdom come.
Let the reign of divine
Truth, Life, and Love
be established in me,
and rule out of me all sin;
and may Thy Word
enrich the affections of all mankind

A mighty oak tree standing firm against the storm,
As sunlight scatters the shadows of night
A river nourishing the land it flows through

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[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kant in 90 Minutes by Paul Strathern
Excellent


This is another book in a series of authors explained in ninety minutes, with great skill, by a wonderful author.
Kant has always been an epitome of high thinking, representing the power of human thought to produce works of genius.
The flip side is that Kant has also signified a barrier that I would never pass, being unable to get anywhere close to understanding him.
In fact, it is not even a question of understanding, for I could not even write a page of his work, although I tried.
To put it into perspective, perhaps I could have done better had I tried and there is also the issue of training.
In high school, instead of being given an introduction to philosophy in an honest way, we were actually indoctrinated.
Whatever opposed the Marxist doctrine was wrong and wherever there were statements that could be used for the communist purpose, the philosopher in question was named a precursor of the “great” Marx.
So I have always regretted that instead of having at least some summary education that would help, I was actually sent on the wrong path.
Kant is too complex to be read and understood easily, and I found solace in this book- and others- finding how difficult the philosopher is for most people.
When he gave his manuscript to a cousin, that one returned it and said that he had to stop half way through:
- I feared for my sanity and I stopped
As Paul Strathern says, it is quite an achievement that the relative has reached that far in the book, without fear.
Even if the subject and the hero of this very good book are very serious, the tone is at times light, with even a few jokes
A quote from The Critique of Pure Reason is first given in English, then in Italian, where it may sound better.
Even with Italian, there is a feeling that the meaning would be very hard to grasp and the writing appears hermetic.
But Paul Strathern writes:
- You do not want to hear it in German
Kant was an intriguing man, whose life appeared to have been very ordinary, without any exceptional event.
Again, as the author puts it- all that happened to Immanuel Kant, did not take place in the exterior world, but inside his mind.
And what a mind!
Kant had a very precise routine, and people could set their watches according to his afternoon walk, taking place every day at three thirty.
He even turned down an invitation to teach at the prestigious University of Berlin, on account of his dislike for travelling.
One concept that has attracted my attention is the Categorical imperative, whereby we would need to act not according to feelings or emotions, but based on duty.
We would all need to do something having in mind that that act would be performed by all humanity in the same way.
Kant believed that lying is not permitted and had qualms about the habitual ending of letters that provided for:
- Your devoted servant
Paul Strathern is ironic when he mentions an instance when Kant reneged somehow on a promise he had made to the emperor.

The book is excellent.

[AttackGirl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Paul very nice summary about Hume..? or was it about Sexual impedience of the Hunchback of Notre Dame?

So I would recommend a Chronology and introduction up front. It was 550 Rome when all of the people wandered around thinking of the stars and studying mathematics because of the mathematical formula given to Pythagoras's StarChild; Astraeus

If I have no concept what or who Kant is why would I know what a Hume is. I know you are covering a lot in a little time but if you just start talking with no concept you talking about the make up of a star or boat maker. Why was he late to publish a theory for his age when where and why was that time the thing to do... where was it Rome, Constantinople, Russia? Perhaps follow up with an indept reading / reference list with links to learn more.

Might be easier for everyone. Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you just told them. Because people like me will read all you have written and like to know where the beginning is and what was the last....and where it all fits together in a linear fashion even if I think time is only a human concept of musical spheres which has been reinforced by the double slit experiment.

Have you heard of listmuse.com I think you should contact the owner David. I will also be sending him an email with your name. Make contact I think you gentlemen could do great work together. Once I receive and email back of the contact I will change the 1 star to a more appropriate assessment.

Mothers are smart she knew Kant would not be the athletic male to draw a successful physical life so she guided him to what could become a successful life. A smart mother does not guide her son to professional basketball when he will only grow to 4 ft.

[Francesc Coll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una de les lectures més divertides en mesos.

"Kant vivía en Prinzesinnenstrasse, en una casa que fue demolida en 1893. Cuidaba de él su viejo y gruñón criado Lampe, con quien él solía ser igualmente gruñón. Para ir a la cama, Kant se colocaba invariablemente un gorro en verano y dos en invierno. A la manera de todos los tiranos domésticos quisquillosos, Kant se preocupó siempre mucho del bienestar espiritual de Lampe. En realidad, Kant declaró que había restablecido a Dios en la Crítica de la razón pura expresamente para dar a Lampe algo en qué creer. Quizá Lampe no apreció esto, pues no tenemos pruebas de su gratitud. Algo más fácil de imaginar es la actitud de Lampe hacia el método filosófico, único de su amo, de sostener sus medias mediante cintas que pasaban por los bolsillos de su pantalón, sujetas a dos resortes alojados en cajitas".

"Wollner, un ardiente pietista, se encargó del ministerio de educación y Kant fue acusado de abusar de la filosofía para distorsionar la Biblia. Evidentemente, alguien del ministerio había logrado batallar a través de las 800 páginas de la crítica de la razón pura y había descubierto que en ella se negaban todas las pruebas de la existencia de Dios".

[Daniel Hernández · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Kant in 90 Minutes” by Paul Strathern is an eloquent, concise portrait, not merely of Immanuel Kant's philosophy, but of the man behind the categorical imperative. Strathern elegantly pares down the complexities of Kant's life and thoughts, allowing readers a glimpse into the personal habits and historical context that shaped one of the most pivotal figures in Western philosophy. The book provides a narrative that suggests a more profound understanding of Kant's rigorous works can be achieved by understanding the philosopher himself — a man of routine, yet one whose thoughts broke the very mold of routine thinking.

Strathern’s writing possesses a certain verve, inviting the reader to consider how the very human aspects of Kant's life—his idiosyncrasies and his responses to the tumultuous times he lived in—influenced his groundbreaking works. This approach does not dilute the philosophical concepts but rather grounds them in the reality of a human life, making the journey through Kant's reasonings an enlightening venture into the symbiosis of life and thought.

[Gerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short read about Immanuel Kant is a great read for readers who want to get more into metaphysics. The subjects that Mr. Kant focuses on are hard to comprehend and Paul Strathern does a great job in simplifying those ideas that Kant had and put them in in this short read. This book starts with the birth of Immanuel and his family history. His father was a harness-maker and his whole family was born in Prussia, which is present day Russia. He is labeled as a German philosopher because the city where he was born was both German and Russian. He was inspired by his mothers natural intelligence, and grew closer to her. Throughout the book you learn about his personal life, what led up to his creation of Critique of Pure Reason and other famous writings. This book concludes with Kant’s fear of germs since back in those times medicine was not accessible or developed, and when he died. This book is a great read for people who are interested in learning about complex philosophical readings, and this book is a good starter before actually reading Kant’s books.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was some of the toughest philosophy for me.

I am still trying to understand what exactly "synthetic a priori" is and why it's important.

It's either just nonsense or actually kind of deep.

But in general, I really enjoyed learning about Kant. He was a weird guy, but oddly endearing.

It was interesting to learn that he started out as a scientist and wrote many scientific articles.

I am also both impressed and intimidated by the rigidity of his schedule (He did exactly the same things every day at exactly the same time). It's probably a great way to be productive as an academic, but I could never do that. I am a pretty boring person, but not THAT boring!

And finally it was cool to to realize that he didn't publish his FIRST major work until he was 57! (Although I think he did spend 11 years working on it). That's a lot later than most philosophers. As someone currently in their 40s I find that inspiring.