Immanuel Kant was born into a lower-class family, and experienced the loss first of his mother and then of his father quite early in life. He was small and frail, and he suffered from a spinal deformity. For most of his life this diminutive, congenial man endured financial hardship, and his last years were racked by a form of dementia, probably Alzheimer's disease. In spite of these challenges, Immanuel Kant is widely considered to be the greatest modern philosopher, in part because his way of thinking about the world – or rather his way of thinking about our understanding of the world – is very much in harmony with the understandings of modern physics and psychology. Albert Einstein claimed that Kant's

Critique of Pure Reason

had a greater influence on him than any other work of…

2950 words

Citation: Wood, Kelsey. "Immanuel Kant". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 September 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2438, accessed 28 March 2024.]

2438 Immanuel Kant 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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