The Problem Of God’s Existence In Kant’s Philosophy

Immanuel Kant rejected the classical ontological, cosmological, and teleological arguments for the existence of God on the grounds of their probabilistic status. Having comprehensively analysed, criticized, and rejected the classical proofs of God’s existence, Kant turned to the moral field to find justification for the belief in God. Having concluded that speculative or pure reason (which supports the classical metaphysical argument) cannot escape the sphere of probability, Kant turned to the sphere of practical reason to pursue the ethico-teleological argument for God’s existence. While pure reason fails to establish God’s existence with certainty, practical reason postulates God as a moral necessity. For Kant, the phenomenon of morality is fully intelligible only when we posit God as the ultimate guarantor of morality. His analysis of the summum bonum, or the highest good, threw up the notions of virtue and happiness. Since it is logical for virtue to be rewarded with happiness and since nature itself cannot bring this about, there must be a Being who is omnipotent and, therefore, able to harmonize virtue with happiness. Kant identified this being as God. This work critically examined the basis of Kant’s dismissal of the classical metaphysical proofs of God’s existence. While agreeing with Kant that belief in a Supreme Being is something rooted in human nature, this work, nevertheless, rejected Kant’s dismissal of the classical metaphysical proofs since his own ethico-teleological argument does not escape probability. The work asserted that since the human mode of knowing is subject to probability in a world understood by science in probabilistic terms, no proof of God’s existence so far can meet the criterion of certainty which motivated Kant to reject the classical metaphysical proofs. While noting the explanatory inadequacy of the ontological, cosmological, and teleological proofs when evaluated in a purely theoretical fashion, this work asserted that empirical scientific evidence of the fine-tuning of the universe from Big Bang cosmology lends to the classical metaphysical proofs a level of probability plausible enough to establish the rationality of the belief in God. The work employed qualitative philosophical research. The work subjected data from books, journals, periodicals, and electronic sources to the expository, critical, and evaluative methods of philosophical research to establish the thesis of this study in six critical chapters. With the expository method the researcher presented a clear and detailed account of Kant’s thoughts on God’s existence. The critical and evaluative methods enabled the researcher to determine the strengths and weaknesses of Kant’s insightful problematization of, and solution to, the enduring question of the existence of God.