Immanuel Kant

The Giants of Philosophy

by A.J. Mandt, Charlton Heston (Narrator)

Immanuel Kant's transcendental philosophy transcends the question of what we know to ask how we know it. Before Kant, philosophers had debated for centuries whether knowledge is derived from experience or reason. Kant says that both views are partly right and partly wrong, that they share the same error; both believe that the mind and the world, reason and nature, are separated from one another. Kant says that our reason organizes our sense perception to produce knowledge. The mind is a creative force for understanding the manifold of new, unconceptualized sense impressions with which the world bombards us. The Giants of Philosophy series is a collection of dramatic presentations, in understandable language, of the concerns, questions, interests, and overall outlook of the world's great philosophers and philosophical traditions. Special emphasis on clear and relevant explanations gives you a new arsenal of insights toward living a better life.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Audiobook, History, Biography, Academic

2 pages, Audio CD

First published December 1, 1994

Reviews

[CA Ram Melam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got clarified philosophy from this summary with the explanation of the main ideas and opposing views. I have listened to many works before and found this work very useful.

[Evgeniy Vasilev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again the fake accent is distracting as with every other audio book in the series.

[Tarunay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read this to check out what Neitzche was going on about in Beyond Good and Evil. Regardless, it's a decent concise overview of his philosophical stance, mixed with some historical and contemporary context. Part of me just wants to ignore the study of moral philosophy and not bother to think about it, but it's kinda fun sometimes. I also wish the audiobook didn't have so many fake accents!

[Igor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am marking 5 stars not because after listening to this audio book I will be an expert in philosophy, but at least I have found this summary very 'clear' by explaining the main ideas and opposing views. I have read (and listen to) many materiais before and I have found it very useful to sum up certain points.

[Noor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kant, is honestly one of the most important but also most difficult philosophers ever.

The heart of this audiobook Immanuel Kant is Kant’s quest to understand how we can know anything at all and what it really means to act morally.

Categorical Imperative
The main idea is that Kant caused this total "Copernican Revolution" in thinking. Before him, everyone thought our minds just sort of copied the world. Kant flipped that. He argued that our own minds actually structure the world we experience. We can never know things "as they are in themselves", only as our minds filter them. It also gets deep into his ideas about morality, what he calls the "Categorical Imperative", which is basically a way to figure out right from wrong based on pure reason, not religion or feelings.

What impacted me the most was Kant's whole take on freedom versus obedience. The book shares this quote from his essay "What is Enlightenment?" that just blew my mind. He lays out all these examples of people in authority saying:

Do not argue!
The officer says: "Do not argue drill!"
The tax collector: "Do not argue pay!"
The pastor: "Do not argue believe!"
Then Kant says: Only one ruler in the world says: "Argue as much as you please, but obey!" We find restrictions on freedom everywhere.

His whole point is that we need to distinguish between our "public" and "private" use of reason. In our job (our private role), we have to obey to keep society functioning. But as a citizen or scholar (our public role), we have an absolute duty to argue, question, and criticize.

The Matrix
It is funny, the whole time I was listening to the part about our minds creating our reality, I could not stop thinking about the movie The Matrix. Remember how Morpheus tells Neo that the world is just "the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth"?

Kant is essentially saying the same thing, but in a philosophical way! He says we are all living in the "phenomenal" world (the world as our minds construct it) and can never, ever access the "noumenal" world (the "real" world). It is a total mind bend.

Charlton Heston narrated the audiobook and he has that classic, powerful voice that commands your attention. The audiobook tries to mimic the tone and style of historical figures. At first, this feels fresh and engaging, but I found it became a little annoying over time.

[Xavier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kant has without a doubt influenced morality and ethics on every modern thinker, whether they know it or not, but I find myself disagreeing with many of his points.

The concept that people are above animals because people have consciousness, a morality, an individualistic narrative, a sense of duty and animals do not I believe is an overreach. The constructs of the human consciousness are a framework for a successful society. Animals may have their own tribes with their own rules. To say human beings or some cosmic order has chosen these rules is an exercise in narcisicm for the human race. Kant also says animals are a means where people may be a means or an end. People are only considered an end because we put importance on people over animals. I can think of animals people would consider to be an end as well (think of any beloved pet). This still does not elevate animals to personhood by any means.

I suppose the entire idea that human beings are special or that reality exists for us because we can define it and place a moral duty upon the actions within it I cannot agree with. The golden rule is a pretty good one though.

[Jerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

When you are not in the philosophical frame of mind, studies like this, though compelling, can be hard to process. Though just a quick overview of Kang’s concepts and context, the laity of philosophy (e.g. me))could use some examples of how this work translates to our daily lives.

Charlton Heston as reader was a bit odd to me but I guess the vocal treatments gives it a biblical elevation. The cheesy foreign accents used when quoting philosophers was a distraction and cheapens the production.

Slaying the dragon of Immanuel Kant has long been on my bucket list and after this book that battle continues.

[AttackGirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps we are now in the age of ignorance.

I’ve read Kant’s Practically Reason (decide how to act) but was not impressed. I did however enjoy Pure Reason.

Seems religion is the bases of all Developmental thoughts of existence, it would be interesting to see the development of thought without the insistence of the church’s imposition of Jesus. All the “thinkers” had extensive religious upbringing, education perhaps pushing the development of their interest, maybe the rational mind knowing man does NOT return from the dead.

[Dean Paradiso · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook version of this work and this review is mainly through that lens. Although the actual content was good, and gave a good summary of some of Kant's ideas and also his history, I couldn't finish the audiobook because of the crazy accented voices that kept popping up throughout. I really did want to hear what Kant had to say, but not through a German type of accented voice. Similar for other voices that expressed thoughts from philosophers that weren't English.

[bimri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kant's communication skills are insufferable for a genius who literally couldn't convey his philosophies simply. Not that said - philosophies were complex - only "densely" conveyed. He remains a definitive great thinker of his time though!

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Categorical imperitive!

[Casey]

Audible listen. As with others in this line, this entry is a perfectly fine place to begin learning a bit about the life and ideas of Immanuel Kant.

[Kyle M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise and interesting. Neat concepts.

[Augusto Bernardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Immanuel Kant is the Philosopher which actually got me intereseted in Philosophy in the first place and still remains my favourite philosopher. That isn't to say I could repeat his complex philosophies or even attempt to read his book. Not suprisingly his work is incredibly difficullt to understand so this audiobook (narrated by the great Charlton Heston) is quite good because it breaks it down and makes all his philosophies understandble. A short book but I guess if you get straight to the point and get past all the technical philophical jargon, you are left with significantly less. Not to mention Immanuel Kant is well known for NOT having a very exciting or eventful life despite being one of the greatest thinkers of all time.

[Samuel Bierig · Rating 4 out of 5]

still Fascinating.