Zwei Dinge erfüllen das Gemüt mit immer neuer and zunehmender Bewundering und Ehrfurcht, je öfter und anhaltender sich das Nachdenken damit beschäftigt: der besternte Himmel über mir und das moralische Gesetz in mir.
(Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.)
--Kant, Critique of Practical Reason
Important works:
- De mundi sensibilis atque intelligibilis forma et principiis, 1770 (On the Forms and Principles of the Sensible and the Intelligible World). This is more commonly known as the `Inaugural Dissertation'. While differing in many fundamental ways from Kant's later Critical Philosophy, the Dissertation provides an insight into the processes leading up to the Critique of Pure Reason.
- Kritik der reinen Vernunft, 1781 (Critique of Pure Reason). This is Kant's most important work, and the foundation of his Critical philosophy and all the works that follow.
- Prolegomena zu einer jeden künftigen Metaphysik, 1783 (Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics). This piece is an explication of the Critique of Pure Reason, and serves as an excellent introduction to that work.
- Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, 1785 (Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals). This is the introduction to Kant's moral philosophy, and a prelude to the later Critique of Practical Reason.
- Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft, 1786 (Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science). This is one of Kant's lesser-known works. It deals, surprisingly enough, with the foundations of natural science.
- Kritik der praktischen Vernunft, 1788 (Critique of Practical Reason). This work deals with applied reason, especially as related to the possibility of morals. It is related to the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals.
- Kritik der Urteilskraft, 1790 (Critique of Judgement). This work deals with the possibility and bounds of aesthetic judgement and teleological judgement.
- Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der bloßen Vernunft, 1793 (Religion within the Bounds of Reason Alone). This work concerns the rational support (or lack thereof) of religion. This was discussed earlier in the Critique of Pure Reason, as the Ideal of Pure Reason.
- Metaphysik der Sitten, 1797 (Metaphysics of Morals). This is an attempt at a moral system based on the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and the Critique of Practical Reason.