Immanuel Kant was more important than John Stuart Mill in the development of philosophy

Comparing the two philosophers has been fun. IntroCon introduces Mill with the opening quote of Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's entry on Mill. In order to compare what this esteemed encyclopedia says about both figure, I will present the opening section of the entry on Kant. “Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) is the central figure in modern philosophy. He synthesized early modern rationalism and empiricism, set the terms for much of nineteenth and twentieth century philosophy, and continues to exercise a significant influence today in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, and other fields” [1]. Mill is called the most famous British philosopher of the 19th century. Kant is deemed the central figure of modern philosophy. We are not deciding this debate based on such quotes. Nevertheless, I think they adequately sum up concisely what can be said of their importance. Main branches of philosophyAfter google searching the above words, the results I got from the first 4 sources (excluding wikipedia) were:Metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics, esthetics [2]Axiology (study of value) which covers ethics, aesthetics; epistemology, ontology or Metaphysics [3]Metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics, aesthetics [4]Epistemology, metaphysics, logic, ethics [5]As the last source mentions, the traditional division is epistemology, metaphysics, logic and ethics, and these four branches seem to be the only consistently mentioned ones. Thus, I think it’s a good framework to keep all the mentioned branches in mind, but these four especially for this debate. Metaphysics and EpistemologyCon has not presented Mill’s contributions to these two areas so it’s hard for me to make a comparison. The only mention is the Stanford quote which states he made significant contributions to these areas. I’ll admit that of course, however, as the Stanford entry also mentions, “His views are not entirely original, having their roots in the British empiricism of John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume, and in the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham” [6]. His service to these areas was to provide depth to them, defend them, and make them more popular. These are certainly important contributions, but when you think of empiricism, you think Locke, Berkeley, Hume; when you think of utilitarianism, you think Bentham, then Mill. On the other hand, when you think of Kantianism, you think of Kant--obviously--just as when you think of deontology ethics, Kant most comes to mind. AestheticsCon does not bring up aesthetics, so I’ll just expand more on Kant’s major contributions to this area. Kant’s “Critique of Judgment” was “The first systematic, ambitious, and widely influential attempt to rethink the meaning of the aesthetic in the altered context of modernity. .. Several of the deep and largely permanent alterations in the modern Western conception of the aesthetic dimension were introduced and defended in that work” [14 P.189]. Kant argued that beauty is not an objective predicate of objects but is the combination of the interaction between objects and the observer’s cognitive tools [14 P.189]. However, “Kant hardly left his analysis at such a subjective and potentially relativistic point. .. Kant proceeded to argue that even though the ultimate source of aesthetic experience is our own faculties and their interaction, not the nature of the world, this new source has its own kind of authority and claim to legitimacy. ” With characteristic originality and great ingenuity, Kant sought a deduction or justification of claims such as “All ought to feel such a pleasure in the presence of such an object” [14 P.190]. Kant developed several theses which influenced much of what came after him; some of them “came to play essential roles in almost all later modern reflection on the aesthetic dimension” [14 P.192]. LogicKant was also an important figure in logic and was actually a lecturer on logic. Though he never wrote a separate work on logic, his thoughts on logic are central to his philosophy and enter in to almost all of his most important writings on philosophy. His views on logic "stands at a key transitional moment in the broader history of logic and philosophy of logic” [7]. The typically idealist view of the structure of thought as an explanation for the structure of the world is most famously argued by Kant [8]. Kant viewed logic as tasked with revealing the possible activities and representational concepts of our understanding (covering formal and transcendental logic). He saw logic as the basis of science and also the blueprint of a scientifically grounded metaphysics. . German Idealists, among others, adopted this view. However, Kant viewed knowledge within logic as limited. “Critically revisiting these alleged restrictions provided inspiration for many of those responsible for the most influential developments in the subsequent history of logic (such as Bolzano, Frege, and Russell)” [7]. As mentioned last round, the Critique of Pure Reason also inspired Charles Pierce and Gottlob Frege, fathers of modern logic. UtilitarianismMill was very important in ethics but I can’t see him coming close to Kant’s importance Mill never created an original theory, he only provided depth, articulation, and influence to utilitarianism. Utilitarianism began with Jeremy Bentham -- years before Mill. Utilitarianism is hugely important, but Bentham is the most important figure in utilitarianism. Con’s source even mentions him before Mill. Deontology ethics is hugely important and Kant is the central figure in deontology. Moreover, Kant’s ethical philosophy was his own. He was the original creator and defender of it, whereas Mill only developed another person’s philosophy. LibertyKant made significant contributions to similar areas, such as autonomy and liberty. For example, the distinction of positive and negative liberty goes back at least to Kant [9]. Positive liberty often overlaps with autonomy. Individual autonomy is a central part of Kantian philosophy and Kant is an important figure in this subject as evidenced by his frequent mentioning in the Stanford entry on autonomy in moral and political philosophy [10]. Liberalism historically arose out the social contract tradition, which Kant adopted and expanded his own views on. Autonomy plays a central role in one dominant strand of this tradition which is found in Kant. “It is the Kantian brand of liberalism that places autonomy of persons at center stage. Rawls's Theory of Justice was seen as the modern manifestation of this Kantian approach to justice, where justice was conceived as those principles that would be chosen under conditions of unbiased rational decision-making” [10]. Women In this respect, Mill certainly was more important than Kant. However, this is merely a sub genre of political philosophy and is only in part philosophical. Women’s studies are political and social, only partly philosophical and only a sub genre of a genre of philosophy. Women's rights are a hugely important social issue, but not philosophically speaking. Philosophy of religion; arguments for GodI’d like to introduce the concept of God’s existence this round since Kant did play a significant role in both defending and tearing down certain arguments. Kant inspired probably the most influential versions of the moral justification for belief in God. These moral arguments were prominent during the 1800s up until the middle 1900s. Kant’s argument is the most famous and possibly the most influential according to Stanford Encyclopedia [11]. Kant's attack of the ontological argument is also important. Stanford Encyclopedia states, "Perhaps the best known criticisms of ontological arguments are due to Immanuel Kant, in his Critique of Pure Reason. Most famously, Kant claims that ontological arguments are vitiated by their reliance upon the implicit assumption that “existence” is a predicate. " [12]Kant also provided a notable and “serious” attack of the cosmological argument [13]Sources[1] . http://plato.stanford.edu...[2] . http://www.importanceofphilosophy.com...[3] . http://philosophy.lander.edu...[4]http://www.philosophy-index.com...[5]http://en.wikibooks.org...[6] . http://plato.stanford.edu...[7] . http://philpapers.org...[8] . http://plato.stanford.edu...[9] . http://plato.stanford.edu...[10] . http://plato.stanford.edu...[11] . http://plato.stanford.edu...[12] . http://plato.stanford.edu...[13] . http://plato.stanford.edu...[14] Rosen, Stanley. Philosophy 101: Selections from the Works of the Western World's Greatest Thinkers. New York: Gramercy, 2007. Print.