Immanuel Kant is a modern philosophical figure who continues to exercise influence today in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics and a significant number of other fields. Freedom is important to Kant's view because moral appraisal presumes that we are free in the sense that we have the ability to do otherwise. To see why, consider Kant's example of a man who commits a theft, Kant holds that in order for this man's action to be morally wrong, it must have been within his control in the sense that it was within his power at the time not to have committed the theft. If this was not within his control at the time, then, while it may be useful to punish him in order to shape his behavior or to influence others, it
