kc1027 @kc1027Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was a Genevan philosopher who was one of the most influential figures in the Age of Enlightenment-
and a pioneer of romanticism. His political theory formed one of the main bases of democratic thought in modern Western civilization.
The general will, which aims at the common interest, was central to his thinking.
Rousseau emphasized the establishment of democratic consensual politics based on the general will, -
which can improve the fundamental goodness of human nature warped by civilization.
He argued the importance of morality and virtue by focusing on the emotional and passionate sides of human beings-
including self-love and compassion in the state of nature, which was later summed up in the phrase 'Back to Nature'.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was a German philosopher who was one of the outstanding figures in modern Western philosophy -
and the starting point of German Idealism. He founded the school of transcendentalism -
which holds that knowledge of the external world depends on sense-impressions coordinated by reason.
His attainment is called 'Copernican Revolution', since he drastically changed the system of knowledge in the conventional epistemology,-
which was dependent on the objects. Kant limited our cognizable area to the percepts ('phenomena') -
instead of intangible God and thing-in-itself (noumenon'). He established his critical philosophy by synthesizing early modern rationalism,
empiricism and Enlightenment thought, through critical examination of reason.
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