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Immanuel Kant (22 Apr 1724 - 12 Feb 1804) was a Prussian (German) philosopher , generally regarded as the most major figure in Modern Philosophy , put alongside Plato and Aristotle from Ancient Philosophy . This makes Kant one of history's most influential thinkers. Known for his highly articulated "Transcendental Idealism", Kant's theory of Epistemology states that Reason applies "innate" Forms and Concepts to our Experience, inputs from the world coming through our Senses. Thus, the world would be unknowable without either experience or concepts, each working to project knowledge gained into future possible experiences. This is Kant's "Copernican Revolution", proposing that instead of concepts conforming to our experiences, it is our experiences which conform to our concepts. We experience the world in the way we are built to experience it. Kant's groundbreaking philosophy of Nature and Humanity literally dominates much of the subsequent inquiries which followed, from Metaphysics to Science to Ethics , where Kant is known for proposing the "Categorical Imperative". He defined moral, ethical actions as those which can only be seen as universally acceptable, as those which promote Humanity. Kant also proposed the first modern theory of the how the Solar System formed, which became the the Kant-Laplace Hypothesis. While Kant is reported to have lived all his life never leaving the vicinity of Königsberg in East Prussia (since 1945, the city has been Kaliningrad, port and administrative city of Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian State between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea). Kant spent much of his youth as a solid, better than average student, and lived off winnings at billiards as much as his writings. He had a conviction that a young man did not find a firm direction in life until the age of 39, and when Kant reached 39 as a student of Metaphysics in the Prussian University, a brief mid-life crisis ensued. To this episode we may credit for Kant's later work. Eventually a respected and competent university professor throughout his remaining years, Kant's writings published before his late 50s would have gained him little notoriety. He was a creature of habit, and the walks he took at 3:30pm every single afternoon were so punctual, so regular, that it was said the local wives and housekeepers checked and set their clocks upon his passing by. Kant was also a very sociable person, and regularly had dinner parties when he entertained varied guests, insisting agreeable sociable company was good for his constitution. In 1770, Kant was 46, and read work of the Scottish philosopher, David Hume . Hume was a fierce proponent of Empiricism who scorned all Metaphysics, systematically debunking the accepted thinking on the subject at the time as based upon mere habit and custom. Hume's famous thesis was that nothing in our experience can justify our assumption of "causal powers" inhering within things. For example, we assume as one billiard ball strikes another on a pool table, the second one simply must move. Because it has always happened this way, we tend to assume through custom and habit things will happen the same way every time.