Immanuel Kant is often considered the most important philosopher of modernity. Kant sought to re-found the Enlightenment by providing a coherent ground in human reason for the divergent philosophical and scientific traditions that sprang from early modern thought. He also sought to integrate human moral, aesthetic and historical experience with this ground and thus provide a comprehensive system of philosophy that unifies human experience.

In this introduction to Kant's thought, we will read brief excerpts from several of Kant's works with the specific goal of investigating what his vision makes of our ordinary experience or understanding of life. This is the test for all philosophical teachings in general, and if we find tensions between our experience and Kant's thought then we are in a position to identify the difficulties within the Enlightenment project as a whole that need our attention.