Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (; ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher who is a central figure in modern philosophy. In his doctrine of transcendental idealism, he argued that space, time and causation are mere sensibilities; "things-in-themselves" exist, but their nature is unknowable. In his view, the mind shapes and structures experience, with all human experience sharing certain structural features. He drew a parallel to the Copernican revolution in his proposition that worldly objects can be intuited "a priori" ("beforehand"), and that intuition is therefore independent from objective reality. Kant believed that reason is the source of morality, and that aesthetics arise from a faculty of disinterested judgment. Kant's views continue to have a major influence on contemporary philosophy, especially the fields of epistemology, ethics, political theory, and post-modern aesthetics.
Feminist Jewish ethics
Hermann Cohen was a philosopher who lived from 1842-1918 who held many of the same philosophical beliefs as Immanuel Kant, but applied to Judaism. Cohen also sees ethics as what "ought to be" in the social world, as opposed to seeing what "is" as a current state of affairs that is unchangeable. According to Cohen, only God falls into both categories of what "is" and what "ought to be". According to Cohen, ethics are equivalent to what ought to be. Jewish feminist ethicists have use Cohen's Kantian ideas by expressing their ideals for equality for women in Judaism as what ought to be.