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Prologue - Invitation to Kant's Class

Part 1: How Knowledge Is Created - Kant's Epistemology

Chapter 1: Who is Kant?
Chapter 2: What is Criticism?
Chapter 3: Do We Know 'As It Is'?
Chapter 4: Can the Existence of God Be Proven?

Part 2: How We Should Live - Kant's Moral Philosophy

Chapter 1: Why Are Humans Dignified?
Chapter 2: A Happy Life and a Right Life
Chapter 3: How are moral laws discovered?
Chapter 4: How Can Humans Be Moral?

Part 3: From Enlightenment to Global Citizenship - The Philosophy of Humanism

Chapter 1: Courageous Questions About Humanity
Chapter 2: The Courage to Use Intelligence
Chapter 3: Are We Living in an Enlightened Age?
Chapter 4: The Failure or Incompleteness of Enlightenment

Part 4: Aesthetics and Politics - Aesthetics and Political Philosophy

Chapter 1: Where is the Fate of Universalism Headed?
Chapter 2: How Judgments Are Made
Chapter 3: How Political Is Aesthetics?
Chapter 4: Is it possible to expand into global citizenship?

Part 5 Addendum

Thinking as a Global Citizen - Nation, Citizens, and Global Citizenship
Chapter 1: What is a Global Citizen?
Chapter 2: Nation, Tribe, and Citizen
Chapter 3: Global Citizenship and Solidarity
Chapter 4: Education and Practice for Growth

Epilogue - Beyond Monologue to Dialogue

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Has the moral law within me stopped working?
The Judgment of a Global Citizen, Questioned by Kant

We live in an age where anyone can pour out information and make judgments. Whether on social media, YouTube, or in public settings, it's easy to find people willing to go to any lengths to prove their "righteousness."
Some people take the number of “likes” as truth, while others paralyze public discourse by proving the superiority of morality through anger.
In this age of endless judgment and reaction, can we really say that we are 'thinking'?
"Kant's Lessons" is a book that deeply reflects on human judgment and moral autonomy in this situation that can be called a crisis of reason.
It was planned based on a lecture by Professor Kim Seon-wook, an authority on Hannah Arendt studies in Korea, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Kant's birth in 2024.
This book revisits the fundamental structure of Kant's philosophy, which has influenced numerous modern philosophers, including Hannah Arendt and Michael Sandel.
In particular, it organizes Kant's three major critiques, 『Critique of Pure Reason』, 『Critique of Practical Reason』, and 『Critique of Judgment』, into the structure of cognition-morality-judgment.
Through this, we connect Kant's philosophy to today's life and answer the question of the future called 'cosmopolitanism' by connecting the challenges left by his philosophy.

Is it possible to make the right judgment for everyone?

In the movie “The Matrix,” Morpheus speaks to the main character, Neo.
“The world we see is not the ultimate reality.” He then shows Neo the blue pill and the red pill.
Neo must now choose whether to take the red pill and face reality, or take the blue pill and maintain a comfortable life in fantasy.
In "Kant's Class," the author says that encountering Kant's philosophy is like facing the world after taking the red pill.
In this way, Kant's Copernican revolution was a revolution that overturned the existing world view.
It is a transformation of the world from an objective reality as it is to a result constructed within the cognitive structure of humans.


If the world is reconstructed within each person's perception, can there be universal moral laws that apply to everyone?
Kant believed that there was a universal cognitive structure shared by all humans, and attempted to prove this through the Critique of Pure Reason.
He believed that it was possible to make judgments that were always true, without going through any experience, that is, 'innate synthetic judgments'.
By virtue of their innate synthetic judgment, humans can always discern true and correct knowledge without relying solely on their own experience.
In other words, humans become able to discern not only science but also “fictional belief structures.”
Through this process of critically examining the limits of reason, humans become aware of “what they are doing” and take the first step toward morality.


The courage to use one's intellect, from pure reason to moral law.

“Moral action is not something you do simply because you have to do it, but something you do because you have to do it.”
In other words, it is an act that responds to the request of goodness itself.”
- 108p, "How We Should Live - Kant's Moral Philosophy"

Any discussion of reason leads to the question, 'What is to be done?'
Kant calls the moral law discovered through reason the 'categorical imperative.'
The categorical imperative examines whether a law can be applied universally and serves as a criterion for determining whether it is moral or not.
For example, the law that “everyone always makes false promises, no matter what the circumstances” cannot be universalized.
Since the very concept of a 'false promise' is a contradiction, if this law were to be universalized, the concept of a promise would not exist in the world.
The categorical imperative shows the unique characteristic of Kant's moral philosophy in that it emphasizes 'self-contradiction' rather than 'social benefit', which is the utilitarian viewpoint.

The author evaluates Kant as having established moral philosophy “more thoroughly than Socrates.”
Kant derives moral laws based solely on fierce logic and reason, not on someone's interests or right and wrong.
But the law doesn't tell us what to do.
It just makes you judge exactly what you are doing.
The categorical imperative ultimately relies on human autonomy, and Kant leaves morality to the will.
Thus, for Kant, dignity is not simply a given right, but rather a matter of practice.
In other words, “humans are inherently dignified, but they are only worthy of being treated with dignity when they practice the will to uphold that dignity.”
This sentence raises a question:
In an age where legitimacy is often based on instinct and anger, do we truly have the will to impose our own moral laws and follow them? "Kant's Lessons" leads readers to these questions, laying the foundation for judgment.

Beyond monologue to dialogue
Imagining coexistence and solidarity based on Kant's philosophy

What is most interesting about this book is that it gradually expands Kant's philosophy to include morality, humanism, and the practice of global citizenship.
In particular, after Part 4, which deals with the Critique of Judgment, Part 5, an addition that was not included in the original lecture, was added, and the discussion expanded to questions about ‘cosmopolitanism.’
“If I were to define Kant in one word, he would be a philosopher who opened up the possibility of universalism based on transcendental philosophy and reflective philosophy.”
But through the world wars and the Holocaust of the 19th century, we witnessed how 'universalism' could degenerate into violence.
For us living in the 21st century, the concept of ‘world’ is no longer confined to a single concept.
The world is constantly evolving and changing within the interconnected world of the Internet, within the fusion of individual experiences and cultural activities.
This is why Kant's philosophy seems unable to accommodate modern diversity.

However, the author finds a clue to solidarity in ‘universality.’
As Kant argued in his Critique of the Power of Judgment, we do not use moral laws to judge whether our appreciation or feelings about a work of art are valid or not.
Aesthetic judgments gain artistic validity only by sharing and communicating with others.
This is the very nature of aesthetics, and ultimately we come to realize that the problem of sharing and accepting some common sense is a “problem of communication.”
Although Kant developed his philosophical thought through his monologues, the author argues that “transforming it into a philosophy of dialogue is a crucial task that makes his universalism meaningful today.”

Today we face the cracks brought about by globalization.
In the book, the author calls for a ‘global citizenship’ that goes beyond ‘world citizenship.’
Global citizenship, while encompassed within the framework of cosmopolitanism, demands concrete reflection and practical effort on real-world issues such as politics, ethics, and culture.
Such efforts are possible when we reflect on the sense of reason, autonomy, and responsibility presented by Kant.
Kant's philosophy asks us again:
"Will we possess such enlightenment and courage?" The author suggests that each person's answer to this question will ultimately determine coexistence and peace in our time, thereby enabling Kant's philosophy to move beyond abstract theory to practical ethics.