Geographical Thought of Immanuel Kant – UGC NET – Notes

Immanuel Kant never published about the subject of Geography himself. The popularity of his lectures led to the circulation of various sets of student notes. The writings we know today are based on lectures which have been put together from these student transcripts. These were published under the name ‘Physische Geographie’ in 1802.

In Kant’s time there were two views on space. One was a strict Newtonian way of viewing space as an entity in which objects exist both in matter and mind. The other was based on Leibniz’s belief that space existed only, because of a relationship between objects and/or living things. He reasoned that without distance, between objects, there could not be space. Therefore space is but a mental construct. Kant combined these spaces into a third way. In his own view space itself was a human construct. Without humans there would not be a concept called ‘space’. However, he argues this is only a pattern or spatial schema. Without this, space would exist, but no one would call it space or would classify it. Concluding from Kant’s viewpoint the space humans try to describe does exist. However, by describing it, we create a mental construct. It is this schematic that we call ‘space’.

Immanuel Kant was not only a great scholar of philosophy, he also made immense contributions to the development of natural sciences, especially astronomy, geology and geography. He freed geography from the bonds of theology.