Many of us would at some points in our lives ask these questions: What can I know? What ought I to do? What may I hope for? 
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Today we might have social media influencers dictate the way we should answer the questions, but back 300 years ago, it was Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) who broke through with the answers that changed the way people all over the world think - even up to today.
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The German is recognized being among the three greatest figures in the history of Western philosophy. The other two are Plato and Aristotle.
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Their acclaims are intellectual power; penetration into the deepest parts of difficult questions; creation of new concepts and vocabularies for exploring fundamental questions of being, knowledge and ethics. The scope of their contributions changes the way the people think.
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“Have the courage of your own conviction”, Kant’s most famous statement, is as relevant today as ever. It means realising “that we are responsible and cannot delegate the responsibility.” 
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Kant had great faith in people. He believed they were capable of taking responsibility - for themselves and for the world. Free-willed beings are the most valuable things in the world. They are “ends in themselves”.
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He thought that life could be mastered with reason. And it is the reason that determines morality as a duty over desire.
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In other words, it is reason that should be the basis for moral behavior and people have the capacity to determine right from wrong through rationality deliberation. So, for something to be good, it had to be universal.
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His three maxims are: to think for oneself, to think putting oneself in the place of everyone else, and to always think consistently. Such maxims, he believed, could be advanced through “the public use of reason: that is fundamentally different from the “private” use people make of it. 
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So, we may ask if the Kantian way would still have a place in an increasing polarized world; and an stagnated society gripped by the ongoing clashes between private interests.
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Well, Lea Ypi, Professor of Political Theory from the London School of Economics, attributes this in a recent article to dissent today manifests itself more in clamorous acts of individual self-expression and less in collective critical engagement.
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She says Kant carved out a role for reasons as the universal communicative capacity that tries to steer the middle path between scepticism and dogmatism, between having faith in nothing and blindly following trends. And yet, “That concept harder to achieve now”
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Nonethless, many of Kant’s other insights remain calling for the world facing climate change, wars and crises. Kant was among the first to recommend a "league of nations" as a federal community of republican states. His essay on perpetual peace is often cited as an inspiration for the European Union.
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At this juncture, the world surely is longing for another celebrated Kant to take humanity forward!