Immanuel Kant about Aliens

Of the inhabitants of the stars of the philosopher Immanuel Kant, a text is He is the third part of the appendix and published in 1755 Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens and deals with the question of extraterrestrial life.According to Kant, the existence of life on other planets in our solar system is very likely. He also formulated a solar distance law, increase after the mental abilities of animals, they live farther away from the sun. Accordingly, the human beings on Jupiter are far superior mentally, while Mercury residents were clearly intellectually inferior to the people on earth. From an intellectual superiority also follow a moral superiority, which is why the people were to be regarded from a spiritual and moral perspective, no more than "crown of creation."Kant's theory of extraterrestrial life has been in the history of philosophy and astronomy little attention, partly because his theories have emerged from today's perspective as implausible.Kant does not doubt the existence of life on other planets. While some might be uninhabited planet, then this is an exception.For one thing, some planets have not yet fully developed and therefore do not provide the conditions for organic life - Jupiter was a candidate for such a star. Also, "it could probably barren and uninhabitable areas," give, it would be an "absurdity" to deny that most of the planets are inhabited.Kant is aware of this fact so certain that he did not specifically provided for the existence of extraterrestrial life argument. It simply is a satirical story about lice again to illustrate his thesis:"Those creatures [...] who inhabit the forests on the head of a beggar, had long been her residence for an immense ball and himself regarded as the masterpiece of creation, as one among them, the sky was gifted with a finer spirit, a small Fontenelle of his race, the head of a nobleman became aware unexpectedly. He at once called together all the wits of his quarters and told them with delight: We are not the only living beings throughout nature; behold here a new country, live here more lice. "From Kant's perspective, there are two arguments for the existence of life on other planets. One argument is based on the principle of analogy, the other on Kant's cosmological theory.Analogous argumentThe fable about the lice already pointed to the analogy argument, which seems to speak for the existence of life on other planets, if there are different heads and can be found on a head lice, it can be assumed reasonably assume that it also on other heads will find lice. Only ignorance could bring the lice of the fable to assume that only her head was inhabited. In the same way it would look like, if people would accept that only their planet was inhabited.Will become of the fable a convincing argument, it must be justified, however, why people are ignorant when they assume that only the earth is inhabited. The existence of other planets do not imply the existence of other inhabited planets. This is where the analogy principle comes into play: If you compare with other celestial bodies like planets of the sun, comets, moons and stars, it will be found many similarities between planetary astronomy. Now the analogy principle can be formulated as follows: If two similar cases in many familiar aspects, one can assume that they are similar in unfamiliar aspects. Now, since planets are similar in many aspects, one can assume that they are in relation to the question of the existence of life are similar. And because we are one planet - Earth - already know that life happens to him, it is reasonable to assume that even life has evolved on other planets.Such an analogy argument may seem absurd from today's perspective, since it leads to incorrect results. It is however important to note that analogous arguments are common in many sciences. A simple example is about the allocation of paintings. One wonders whether in fact a painting can be assigned to a particular artist, it will be argued by analogy to the principle: If two similar cases in many familiar aspects, one can assume that they are similar in unfamiliar aspects. The more the painting with the famous paintings in question matches (dating, material, style, etc.), the more likely it is that the paintings match well in terms of your copyright. The modern astrobiology argues on the basis of analogy arguments: We are looking for places that are consistent with the earth in as many relevant aspects.Kant's assumptions about the existence of extraterrestrial life is not wrong because they are based on dubious argument structures. Rather, Kant was not the one presently available data on differences between the planets, on the other hand he did not know what similarities are relevant for the emergence of life, such as temperature or atmosphere.KosmogonieargumentKant's astronomical theory makes the existence of extraterrestrial life, but still plausible for another reason: the young Kant is an avid Newtonian and his General Natural History and Theory of Heaven is based on the theoretical innovations of the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. However, Kant begins at a critical point beyond Newton: Newton could explain the true movements of the planets using the gravitational theory, but he had no theory for the evolution of the universe and postulated at this point the direct intervention of God. Kant succeeds now in the Kant-Laplace theory, to deliver on the basis of Newton, one explanation for the evolution of the universe: As a starting condition, Kant is not an empty space, but a matter cloud (solar nebula), which itself did not form has. Now, this initial state would change, however, quickly through attraction and repulsion, and finally arrive at the current state of the universe. In the context of this theory the following famous dictum of Kant is saying, "Give me matter and I will build a world of it!"Now, does this evolution of the cosmos not just in the inorganic matter, rather, Kant thinks the origin of organic life as a further stage of the development process that is guided solely by the laws of nature. The direct intervention of God is not necessary in the formation and evolution of planets and not at the origin and evolution of organic life. In this sense, Kant's remark is to be understood that on Jupiter, perhaps there is no life, because he is not already in a sufficiently advanced stage. The text of the inhabitants of other planets Kant goes very quickly from the question of the existence of extraterrestrial life over to a theory about the shape of this life. Central here is again Newton's theory of gravitation. According to Newton's law of gravity decreases the attraction between two bodies with increasing distance. Since the planets are different distances from the sun is, the bodies on the planet and are exposed to different forces. Consistent with its general astronomical theory, these differences lead to denser matter sinks to the sun, while the lighter parts are located further away from the central star. Now, Kant argues that these differences in the physical constitution of the planet must surely have an influence on the shape of life."The material from which the inhabitants of different planets, and even the animals and plants can be formed upon it, must ever be so much the lighter and finer type, and the elasticity of the fibers together with the advantageous investment of its construction to be the more perfect, according to the measure as they stand farther from the sun. "In a second step of the argument Kant concludes from the advantageous physical constitution of a beneficial mental constitution. This step assumes that the mental faculties are determined by the physical properties of living things. Kant agrees with the premise that "the faculty of thinking [...] the nature of this matter entirely depends." Kant formulated so a solar distance law, gradually increase the physical and intellectual abilities of creatures with distance from the central star.The argument for the solar distance law can be criticized from many perspectives. Even if one accepts the dependence of physical properties of the distance from the sun, you can still always ask, why should about the "elasticity of the fibers" decisive for the mental abilities of animals. Kant counters this argument with an analogy again: With increasing age, the fibers of people would be less flexible, the juices are thick. These physical phenomena according to Kant, but also bring an increase in mental immobility with age. If one can now observe in people on earth, that the mental faculties are dependent on these physical phenomena, one can reasonably assume that it behaves in other living organisms in the same way.Moral mediocrity of the humanMiddle of the 18th Century, recognized the Copernican world view, that the earth is a planet of the other five classical planets in the solar system is, Mercury is closest to the Sun and Jupiter is farther from the sun than Earth. The earth stands between these planets and the sun according to the inverse square law Earthlings result have only average intellectual abilities. Kant explains this situation with the following comparison: the inhabitants of Mercury would appear every person as a Newton - Newton to Kant, is an outstanding example of a genius. Conversely, even Newton would appear to Jupiter residents as mentally very little talent. One consequence of Kant's conception is so that people no longer appear as a "crown of creation", they are inferior to many extra-terrestrial beings hopelessly.The situation is exacerbated, since Kant links the moral abilities of organisms to their general intellectual abilities. People are so inferior to Jupiter residents not only intellectually but also morally stand on a lower level. Kant speculated that the situation of man is perhaps unique in that only they have the "ability unfortunate" possessed, to sin:"Who knows, are not the people of that entferneten world body too lofty and too wise to be to allow for the foolishness that goes into the sin down, but those live in the inferior planets, fixed firmly on the matter and even provide low capacities of the mind in order to bear the responsibility of their acts before the tribunal of justice? "