Kant: evidence for the existence of God, criticism and refutation, moral law

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

In European philosophy, proofs of the existence of God are necessary for understanding the connection between being and thinking. This topic has been on the minds of prominent thinkers for thousands of years. This path did not pass by the great German thinker Emmanuel Kant, the founder of German classical philosophy. There are classical proofs for the existence of God. Kant subjected them to scrutiny and severe criticism, while desiring true Christianity, not devoid of reason.

Prerequisites for criticism

I would like to note that between the time of Kant and Thomas Aquinas, whose evidence is recognized by the church as classical, five hundred years have passed, during which significant changes have occurred in life. The society and the man himself were transformed, werenew laws were discovered in the natural fields of knowledge, which could explain many natural and physical phenomena. Philosophical science also stepped forward. Naturally, the five proofs of the existence of God, logically correctly built by Thomas Aquinas, could not satisfy Kant, who was born five hundred years later. In fact, there is much more evidence.

In his works, Kant comes to amazing conclusions concerning the inner world of man. If, when studying the external world, a person understands that certain laws operate in the Universe that can explain the nature of many phenomena, then when studying moral laws, he is faced with the fact that he knows nothing about spiritual nature and only makes assumptions.

Considering the proofs of the existence of God from a philosophical standpoint, Kant doubts their validity from the point of view of his time. But he does not deny the very existence of God, he is most likely critical of the methods of proof. He claims that the spiritual nature was and remains unexplored, unknown. The limit of knowledge is, according to Kant, the main problem of philosophy.

Even if we take our time, when the natural sciences made an unprecedented leap: discoveries in physics, chemistry, biology and other sciences, then spiritually everything remains at the level of assumptions, as in Kant's time.

Five Proofs

Thomas Aquinas chose well-constructed logical proofs for the existence of God. Kant reduced them tothree: cosmological, ontological, theological. Exploring them, he criticizes the existing ones, and introduces a new proof - the moral law. This caused a controversial reaction of thinkers. Let's name these five proofs.

First

Everything in nature moves. But any movement cannot start on its own. An initial stimulus (source) is needed, which itself remains at rest. This is the highest power - God. In other words, if there is movement in the universe, then someone must have started it.

Second

Cosmological proof. Any cause creates an effect. There is no point in looking for the previous one, since the causeless cause or the root cause is God.

Third

Any object in the Universe enters into interconnection and relationship with other objects, bodies. It is not possible to find all prior relationships and interconnections. There must be an independent and self-sufficient source - this is God. Kant presented this proof as a continuation of the cosmological one.

Fourth

Ontological proof. Absolute perfection is that which exists in representation and reality. His principle to the complex from the simple is the eternal movement towards absolute perfection. That is what God is. Kant stated that it is impossible to represent God as all-perfect only in our minds. He rejects this evidence.

Fifth

Theological proof. Everything in the world exists in a certain order and harmony, the emergence of which is impossible by itself. This leads to the assumption thatthere is an organizing principle. This is God. Plato and Socrates saw the higher mind in the structure of the world. This proof is called biblical.

Kant's proof

Moral (spiritual). After critiquing and proving the fallacy of the classical proofs, the philosopher discovers a completely new one, which, to Kant's own surprise, gives six proofs for the existence of God. No one has been able to confirm or disprove it to this day. A brief summary of it is as follows. The conscience of a person, living inside him, contains a moral law, which a person cannot create himself, it also does not arise from an agreement between people. Our spirit is closely connected with God. It is independent of our desire. The creator of this law is the supreme legislator, no matter what we call it.

For its observance, a person cannot desire a reward, but it is implied. In our spirit, the highest legislator has laid down that virtue receives the highest reward (happiness), vice - punishment. The combination of morality with happiness, which is given to a person as a reward - this is the highest good that every person strives for. The connection of happiness with morality does not depend on a person.

Religion as confirmation of God

All earthly peoples have a religion, believe in God. Aristotle and Cicero spoke about this. Along with this, there are seven proofs of the existence of God. Kant refutes this assertion, stating that wewe do not know all peoples. The universality of the concept cannot serve as a proof. But at the same time, he says that this confirms the existence of a moral law, that faith in God lives in every soul, regardless of race, climate in which a person lives

Kant and Vera

Kant's biography shows that he treated religion with absolute indifference. From childhood, he was brought up on an understanding of faith (Lutheranism) in the spirit of pietism, a movement widespread at that time that arose in Germany at the end of the 17th century as a protest against the degeneration of Lutheranism. Was against church rites. Pietism was based on the belief in the subject of faith, knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, moral behavior. Subsequently, pietism degenerates into fanaticism.

Children's pietistic worldview, he subsequently subjected to philosophical analysis and severe criticism. First of all, they got the Bible, which Kant considered nothing more than an ancient text. Further, such a concept as "salvation" is criticized. Lutheranism, as a current of Christianity, makes it dependent on faith. Kant perceives this as insufficient respect for the human mind, limiting his self-improvement.

I would like to immediately note that the philosophical proofs of the existence of God, including those discovered by Kant, are the subject of European philosophy and papal Christianity. In Orthodoxy, no attempts were made to prove the existence of God. Since faith in God is a matter of personal beliefhuman, so no proof was required.

Kant's pre-critical period

In the first half of his life, or, as biographers call this time, in the pre-critical period, Emmanuel Kant did not think about any evidence for the existence of God. He was completely absorbed in natural science topics, in which he makes an attempt to interpret the structure of the universe, the origin of the universe from the point of view of Newtonian principles. In his main work "The General Natural History and Theory of the Sky", he considers the origin of the Universe from the chaos of matter, which is acted upon by two forces: repulsion and attraction. Its origin with the planets, with its own laws of development.

Based on the words of Kant himself, he tried not to conflict with the requirements of religion. But his main thought: “Give me matter, and I will build a world out of it…” is the audacity to put oneself equal, from the point of view of religion, to God. There was no consideration of evidence for the existence of God and their refutation by Kant during this period of life, it came later.

It was at this time that Kant was fascinated by philosophical methodology, he was looking for a way to turn metaphysics into an exact science. Among the philosophers of that time, there was an opinion that metaphysics was becoming akin to mathematics. This is exactly what Kant disagreed with, defining metaphysics as an analysis on the basis of which the elementary concepts of human thinking are determined, and mathematics should be constructive.

Critical period

During the critical period, his most important works were created - Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason, Critique of Judgment, where Immanuel Kant analyzes the evidence for the existence of God. As a philosopher, he was interested, first of all, in the questions of understanding being and the very subject of the existence of God, put forward in philosophical theology by outstanding thinkers of the past, such as Aristotle, Descartes, Leibniz, scholastic theologians, namely Thomas Aquinas, Anselm of Canterbury, Malebranche. There were quite a lot of them, so the five main proofs set forth by Thomas Aquinas are considered classic.

Another proof of the existence of God formulated by Kant can be briefly called the law within us. This is a moral (spiritual law). Kant was shocked by this discovery and began to look for the beginning of this powerful force, which makes a person undergo the most terrible mental anguish and forget about the instinct of self-preservation, gives a person incredible strength and energy.

Kant came to the conclusion that there is no God either in feelings, or in mind, or in natural and social environments, just as there is no mechanism for generating morality in them. But he is in us. For non-observance of its laws, a person will definitely be punished.