We Need Kant Now
Life Lessons from Immanuel Kant
Fifteen Life Lessons from Immanuel Kant
“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.” - Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), The Critique of Practical Reason
- Persons are ends in themselves not just means to other ends.
- A better world is possible.
- We must not lose heart.
- Democracy and the rule of law must be defended.
- Enlightenment is a never-ending project.
- Education is key to a healthy society.
- The solution to war is international peace order, not pacifism.
- Think globally, not just locally.
- Don’t just analyze—synthesize.
- Recognize the humanity of human thinking.
- Let theory serve practice.
- Do not forget the starry heavens above.
- Consider the moral law within.
- Cultivate moral communities,
- Fun and joy are part of the good life, too.
Kant: A Revolution in Human Thinking
Marcus Willaschek is Professor of Philosophy at Goethe University, Frankfurt, and a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science, where he is responsible for the German standard edition of Kant’s works. The author of four books, he is also coeditor of the three-volume Kant-Lexikon. Here is the publisher's description of one of his recent books:
"Immanuel Kant is undoubtedly the most important philosopher of the modern era. His Critique of Pure Reason, "categorical imperative," and conception of perpetual peace in the global order decisively influenced both intellectual history and twentieth-century politics, shaping everything from the German Constitution to the United Nations Charter.
Renowned philosopher Marcus Willaschek explains why, three centuries after Kant's birth, his reflections on democracy, beauty, nature, morality, and the limits of human knowledge remain so profoundly relevant. Weaving biographical and historical context together with exposition of key ideas, Willaschek emphasizes three central features of Kant's theory and method. First, Kant combines seemingly incompatible positions to show how their insights can be reconciled. Second, he demonstrates that it is not only human thinking that must adjust to the realities of the world; the world must also be fitted to the structures of our thinking. Finally, he overcomes the traditional opposition between thought and action by putting theory at the service of practice.
In Kant: A Revolution in Thinking, even readers having no prior acquaintance with Kant's ideas or with philosophy generally will find an adroit introduction to the Prussian polymath's oeuvre, beginning with his political arguments, expanding to his moral theory, and finally moving to his more abstract considerations of natural science, epistemology, and metaphysics. Along the way, Kant himself emerges from beneath his famed works, revealing a magnetic personality, a clever ironist, and a man deeply engaged with his contemporary world."
Renowned philosopher Marcus Willaschek explains why, three centuries after Kant's birth, his reflections on democracy, beauty, nature, morality, and the limits of human knowledge remain so profoundly relevant. Weaving biographical and historical context together with exposition of key ideas, Willaschek emphasizes three central features of Kant's theory and method. First, Kant combines seemingly incompatible positions to show how their insights can be reconciled. Second, he demonstrates that it is not only human thinking that must adjust to the realities of the world; the world must also be fitted to the structures of our thinking. Finally, he overcomes the traditional opposition between thought and action by putting theory at the service of practice.
In Kant: A Revolution in Thinking, even readers having no prior acquaintance with Kant's ideas or with philosophy generally will find an adroit introduction to the Prussian polymath's oeuvre, beginning with his political arguments, expanding to his moral theory, and finally moving to his more abstract considerations of natural science, epistemology, and metaphysics. Along the way, Kant himself emerges from beneath his famed works, revealing a magnetic personality, a clever ironist, and a man deeply engaged with his contemporary world."
Interview with Marcus Willaschek
on "Kant: A Revolution in Thinking"
Why Kant’s 250-Year-Old Ideas Are Exactly What We Need Right Now
Marcus Willaschek
August 18, 2025
Reposted from Harvard University Press
Publisher of Willaschek's Kant: A Revolution in Thinking
1. Human dignity must be actively protected.
Kant’s fundamental ethical insight—that every human being has inherent dignity that can’t be taken away—is widely accepted today. Yet we often forget how radical this idea is. It’s not enough to simply believe everyone deserves dignity and equal rights; we must actively protect and enforce those rights when they’re threatened. As long as even one person faces disadvantages because of their skin color, gender, income, or circumstance, we as individuals and society fail to fulfill our most important moral duty. Kant reminds us that protecting human dignity and rights is our fundamental responsibility.
2. A better world is possible.
What can we as individuals do to combat global suffering and injustice? Honestly, not much. Kant knew this too, but he made three important points: first, even a little something beats doing nothing at all; second, individual actions become powerful when others join in; and third, we can’t ask others to step up if we're not willing to do so ourselves. His categorical imperative captures this perfectly: act according to rules that everyone should follow.
A truly just world—what Kant called the “highest good”—would be one where everyone follows this rule, creating mutual respect and support without injustice or suffering. We can move closer to this dream if each of us does what is necessary and possible. Just because the goal seems out of reach is no excuse for complacency and selfishness.
A truly just world—what Kant called the “highest good”—would be one where everyone follows this rule, creating mutual respect and support without injustice or suffering. We can move closer to this dream if each of us does what is necessary and possible. Just because the goal seems out of reach is no excuse for complacency and selfishness.
3. We must not lose heart.
Today’s problems can feel overwhelming. Climate change alone leaves many of us feeling defeated and ready to give up. Kant advises us to take a different approach: if a goal like tackling climate change is remotely achievable, we must work towards it. According to Kant, self-respect demands that we remain hopeful and fight for our goals even when they seem out of reach.
4. Democracy and the rule of law must be defended.
While the rule of law and democracy were distant political goals in Kant’s era, we have largely achieved them in many parts of the world today. Kant illuminates why these principles are worth defending against their enemies: only in a democratic constitutional state do we meet as free equals. For Kant, the rule of law means that state laws restrict individual freedom only to the extent necessary to guarantee the same freedom for all others. Through democratic participation—elections, referendums, and public debate—state laws become rules that we as citizens give ourselves. Those who feel oppressed by liberal democracy can learn from Kant that rejecting civil liberties, democracy, and the rule of law leads not to greater freedom, but to arbitrary rule and oppression.
5. Enlightenment is a never-ending project.
Kant sums up the idea of enlightenment in a simple challenge: “Have the courage to use your own understanding.” By urging people to “think for themselves,” Kant was taking on prejudice, blind obedience, and intellectual laziness. This critical attitude is as vital in our era of fake news and conspiracy theories as it was in Kant’s time. However, thinking for yourself also means your opinions need to be well-founded. Those who invoke freedom of opinion to discredit science and spread misconceptions can learn from Kant’s critique of reason: truly critical thinking includes the willingness to be self-critical.
6. Nothing is more important than education.
Kant believed in social progress not as historical necessity, but as political possibility. Whether we seize that opportunity or squander it is up to us. According to Kant, education is our best shot at building a better, more just society. Only through education can children grow up to become responsible citizens. Kant understood that real education involves more than merely conveying knowledge—students must also develop critical thinking skills. Today, our children need to be critical thinkers to navigate the internet, social media, and an increasingly complex world.
7. The solution to war is international peace order, not pacifism.
Despite considering peace the “highest political good,” Kant was not a pacifist. When defending against unjustified military attacks—such as Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine—war can become unavoidable. Kant argued that we can and must defend ourselves against injustice with force if necessary. However, he makes clear that defense against aggression is only an emergency solution. The real goal must be lasting peace, achievable only through a global confederation of states. The United Nations, NATO, and the European Union (which ended centuries of war in Europe) realize Kant’s ideas, albeit imperfectly. Their weaknesses and design flaws are no reason to abandon them—Kant teaches us to fight to improve them.
8. Think globally! Kant was the first philosopher of globalization.
As Kant made clear, the simple fact that we all share this small spherical planet means we can't avoid each other—we must cooperate politically and economically across our cultural and religious differences. Those pushing for a return to isolationism and nationalism after years of globalization are kidding themselves. As early as the 18th century, Kant observed how injustice anywhere in the world ripples out and affects everyone else. This is even truer today with global supply chains, political dependencies, and the internet connecting us all. Whether we like it or not, Kant says we are all members of a global civil society.
9. Fun and joy are part of the good life.
Contrary to common misconceptions, Kant was not a mean-spirited moralizer but a sociable, fun-loving person who cultivated a large circle of friends and enjoyed eating, drinking, and partying. According to Kant, all people want to be happy, and when good people are miserable through no fault of their own, that’s simply wrong. We must fight for our moral and political goals with a “cheerful heart”—not stubbornly or reluctantly. While today’s crises make this challenging, we have Kant on our side if we manage to enjoy ourselves along the way.
- Marcus Willaschek
- Marcus Willaschek
A Note on Whitehead and Kant
Jay McDaniel
We need Kant now—not because he offered a flawless system or exemplified moral perfection, but because the nine life-lessons identified by Marcus Willaschek in Kant: A Revolution in Thinking speak directly to our historical moment. They help orient us amid the polycrises of our time: the resurgence of authoritarian populism, the shadow of nuclear escalation, widening social and economic inequality, and a pervasive crisis of meaning.
It is true that many in Whitehead-influenced circles are resistant to Kant. Following Whitehead, they argue that Kant neglected what Whitehead called the mode of causal efficacy—experience as fundamentally relational and affective—and thus did not fully account for the depth of relational becoming. That critique has weight. Yet it can also obscure how much Kant still offers the contemporary world and how, in fact, his ideas can deepen Whitehead's own sensibilities.
Beyond the nine lessons already mentioned, six further invitations deserve attention:
It is true that many in Whitehead-influenced circles are resistant to Kant. Following Whitehead, they argue that Kant neglected what Whitehead called the mode of causal efficacy—experience as fundamentally relational and affective—and thus did not fully account for the depth of relational becoming. That critique has weight. Yet it can also obscure how much Kant still offers the contemporary world and how, in fact, his ideas can deepen Whitehead's own sensibilities.
Beyond the nine lessons already mentioned, six further invitations deserve attention:
10. Don’t Just Analyze — Synthesize
Kant refuses reductive either–or thinking. He seeks to hold together domains often treated as opposites—faith and reason, freedom and law, nature and morality—demonstrating that tension need not imply contradiction.
11. Recognize the Humanity of Your Thinking
Our experience of the world is shaped through the forms and categories of the human mind. This insight tempers dogmatism without collapsing into relativism: knowledge is humanly mediated, yet still shareable and accountable.
12. Let Theory Serve Practice
For Kant, reason’s highest vocation is practical. Theoretical inquiry ultimately finds its meaning in clarifying how we ought to live.
13. Do Not Forget the Starry Heavens Above
When imagination is overwhelmed by vastness—the “starry heavens above”—reason discovers its deeper strength. The experience of the sublime reminds us that our dignity lies not in physical magnitude but in our moral vocation.
14. Consider the Moral Law Within
Kant’s phrase “the moral law within” points to an inner awareness of obligation grounded in reason rather than inclination. From a process-relational perspective, this need not be understood as a static inscription but as a dynamic lure toward universality—a widening responsiveness to others.
15. Cultivate Moral Communities
Kant’s idea of a “kingdom of ends” envisions a community in which persons legislate universal principles together and treat one another always as ends, never merely as means. In an era of fragmentation and hyper-individualism, this calls us to see ourselves as co-creators of a moral commons—a relational field of shared dignity and mutual accountability.
As someone shaped by the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, I know Whitehead’s thought well enough to say that, in many of these respects, Whitehead would agree with the ideas just named. Indeed, where Kant calls us to dignity, moral vocation, global responsibility, disciplined freedom, and the building of moral community, Whitehead’s own vision of creative advance, relationality, and the primacy of value moves in strikingly parallel directions.
Whitehead calls us to world loyalty—a fidelity not merely to tribe or nation, but to the whole evolving community of life. He urges a cultivated sensitivity to goodness as an ideal by which to live, understood not as an imposed abstraction but as an aim toward harmony and intensity of experience. He highlights the indispensable role that freedom—self-creativity—plays in human life: each moment is a decision, a shaping of inherited conditions into novel response. Whitehead likewise emphasizes education and believes in the possibility of progress: that is, of being open to new possibilities that are not derived from the past. And he, too, calls for reverence before the starry heavens above, recognizing that cosmic vastness both humbles the ego and awakens moral seriousness.
In these respects, Whitehead was indeed Kantian in spirit.
But what of those who are part of the conservative tradition and who are critical of cosmopolitanism? It is easy to regard Kant as a liberal cosmopolitan of the Enlightenment and therefore as incompatible with tradition-grateful or conservative sensibilities. He can appear to represent the excesses of “modernity”—a rationalism severed from community, religion, and inherited, ancestral wisdom. Yet that reading is too simple. Kant’s emphasis on law, duty, moral formation, and the disciplined cultivation of character resonates deeply with traditions that honor inherited wisdom, ordered freedom, and virtue-education at home and in public education as well.
The question, then, is not whether Kant is flawless or whether his ideas are entirely sufficient for a life well-lived in the 21st century. It is whether we are willing to receive his thought as a set of invitations - lures for feeling, to use Whitehead's language—capable of nurturing seriousness, dignity, and hope in a time that sorely needs them.
Whitehead calls us to world loyalty—a fidelity not merely to tribe or nation, but to the whole evolving community of life. He urges a cultivated sensitivity to goodness as an ideal by which to live, understood not as an imposed abstraction but as an aim toward harmony and intensity of experience. He highlights the indispensable role that freedom—self-creativity—plays in human life: each moment is a decision, a shaping of inherited conditions into novel response. Whitehead likewise emphasizes education and believes in the possibility of progress: that is, of being open to new possibilities that are not derived from the past. And he, too, calls for reverence before the starry heavens above, recognizing that cosmic vastness both humbles the ego and awakens moral seriousness.
In these respects, Whitehead was indeed Kantian in spirit.
But what of those who are part of the conservative tradition and who are critical of cosmopolitanism? It is easy to regard Kant as a liberal cosmopolitan of the Enlightenment and therefore as incompatible with tradition-grateful or conservative sensibilities. He can appear to represent the excesses of “modernity”—a rationalism severed from community, religion, and inherited, ancestral wisdom. Yet that reading is too simple. Kant’s emphasis on law, duty, moral formation, and the disciplined cultivation of character resonates deeply with traditions that honor inherited wisdom, ordered freedom, and virtue-education at home and in public education as well.
The question, then, is not whether Kant is flawless or whether his ideas are entirely sufficient for a life well-lived in the 21st century. It is whether we are willing to receive his thought as a set of invitations - lures for feeling, to use Whitehead's language—capable of nurturing seriousness, dignity, and hope in a time that sorely needs them.