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KANT, IMMANUEL (1724-1804)
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See also:KANT, IMMANUEL (1724-1804) , See also:German philosopher, was See also:born at See also:Konigsberg on the and of See also:April 1724. His grandfather was an emigrant from See also:Scotland, and the name Cant is not uncommon in the See also:north of Scotland, whence the See also:family is said to have come. His See also:father was a saddler in Konigsberg, then a stronghold of See also:Pietism, to the strong See also:influence of which Kant was subjected in his See also:early years. In his tenth See also:year he was entered at the Collegium Fredericianum with the definite view of studying See also:theology. His inclination at this See also:time was towards See also:classics, and he was recognized, with his school-See also:fellow, See also:David Ruhnken, as among the most promising classical scholars of the See also:college. His See also:taste for the greater Latin authors, particularly See also:Lucretius, was never lost, and he acquired at school an unusual facility in Latin See also:composition. With See also:Greek authors he does not appear to have been equally See also:familiar. During his university course, which began in 1740, Kant was principally attracted towards See also:mathematics and physics. The lectures on classics do not seem to have satisfied him, and, though he attended courses on theology, and even preached on one or two occasions, he appears finally to have given up the intention of entering the See also: In 1755 Kant became tutor in the family of See also:Count Kayserling. By the kindness of a friend named See also:Richter, he was enabled to resume his university career, and in the autumn of that year he graduated as See also:doctor and qualified as privatdocent. For fifteen years he continued to labour in this position, his fame as writer and lecturer steadily increasing. Though twice he failed to obtain a professorship at Konigsberg, he steadily refused appointments elsewhere. The only See also:academic preferment received by him during the lengthy See also:probation was the See also:post of under-librarian (1766). His lectures, at first mainly upon physics, gradually See also:expanded until nearly all descriptions of See also:philosophy were included under them. In 1770 he obtained the See also:chair of See also:logic and See also:metaphysics at Konigsberg, and delivered as his inaugural address the dissertation De mundi sensibilis et intelligibilis forma et principiis. Eleven years later appeared the Kritik of Pure See also:Reason, the See also:work towards which he had been steadily advancing, and of which all his later writings are developments. In 1783 he published the Prolegomena, intended as an introduction to the Kritik, which had been found to stand in need of some explanatory comment. A second edition of the Kritik, with some modifications, appeared in 1787, after which it remained unaltered. In spite of its frequent obscurity, its novel terminology, and its declared opposition to prevailing systems, the Kantian philosophy made rapid progress in See also:Germany. In the course of ten or twelve years from the publication of the Kritik of Pure Reason; it was expounded in all the leading See also:universities, and it even penetrated into the See also:schools of the Church of See also:Rome. Such men as J. Schulz in Konigsberg, J. G. Kiesewetter in See also:Berlin, See also:Jakob in See also:Halle, Born and A. L. Heydenreich in See also:Leipzig, K. L. See also:Reinhold and E. Schmid in See also:Jena, See also:Buhle in See also:Gottingen, Tennemann in See also:Marburg, and See also:Snell in See also:Giessen, with many others, made it the basis of their philosophical teaching, while theologians like Tieftrunk, Staudlin, and See also:Ammon eagerly applied it to See also:Christian See also:doctrine and morality. See also:Young men flocked to Konigsberg as to a See also:shrine of philosophy. The Prussian See also:Government even under-took the exPense of their support. Kant was hailed by some as a second See also:Messiah. He was consulted as an See also:oracle on all questions of See also:casuistry—as, for example, on the lawfulness of inoculation for the small-pox. This universal See also:homage for a See also:long time See also:left Kant unaffected; it was only in his later years that he
spoke of his See also:system as the limit of philosophy, and resented all further progress. He still pursued his quiet See also:round of lecturing and authorship, and contributed from time to time papers to the See also:literary See also:journals. Of these, among the most remarkable was his See also:review of See also:Herder's Philosophy of See also:History, which greatly exasperated that author, and led to a violent See also:act of See also:retaliation some years after in his Metakritik of Pure Reason. See also:Schiller at this See also:period in vain sought to engage Kant upon his Horen. He remained true to the Berlin See also:Journal, in which most of his criticisms appeared.
In 1792 Kant, in the full height of his reputation, was involved in a collision with the Government on the question of his religious doctrines. Naturally his philosophy had excited the declared opposition of all adherents of See also:historical See also:Christianity, since its See also:plain tendency was towards a moral See also:rationalism, and it could not be reconciled to the literal doctrines of the Lutheran Church. It would have been much better to permit his exposition of the philosophy of See also:religion to enjoy the same literary rights as his earlier See also:works, since Kant could not be interdicted without first silencing a multitude of theologians who were at least equally separated from See also:positive Christianity. The Government, how-ever, judged otherwise; and after the first See also:part of his See also:book, On Religion within the Limits of Reason alone, had appeared in the Berlin Journal, the publication of the See also:remainder, which treats in a more rationalizing See also:style of the peculiarities of Christianity, was forbidden. Kant, thus shut out from Berlin, availed himself of his See also:local See also:privilege, and, with the See also:sanction of the theological See also:faculty of his own university, published the full work in Konigsberg. The Government, probably influenced as much by hatred and fear of the See also:French Revolution, of which Kant was supposed to be a See also:partisan, as by love of orthodoxy, resented the act; and a See also:secret See also:cabinet See also:order was received by him intimating the displeasure of the See also: With this See also:mandate Kant, after a struggle, complied, and kept his engagement till 1797, when the See also:death of the king, according to his construction of his promise, set him See also:free. This incident, how-ever, produced a very unfavourable effect on his See also:spirits. He withdrew in 1794 from society; next year he gave up all his classes but one public lecture cn logic or metaphysics; and in 1797, before the removal of the See also:interdict on his theological teaching, he ceased altogether his public labours, after an academic course of See also:forty-two years. He previously, in the same year, finished his See also:treatises on the Metaphysics of See also:Ethics, which, with his See also:Anthropology, completed in 1798, were the last considerable works that he revised with his own See also:hand. His Lectures on Logic, on See also:Physical See also:Geography, on Paedagogics, were edited during his lifetime by his See also:friends and pupils. By way of asserting his right to resume theological disquisition, he also issued in 1798 his Strife of the Faculties, in which all the strongest points of his work on religion were urged afresh, and the See also:correspondence that had passed between himself and his censors was given to the See also:world. From the date of his retirement from the chair Kant declined in strength, and gave tokens of intellectual decay. His memory began to fail, and a large work at which he wrought See also:night and See also:day, on the connexion between physics and metaphysics, was found to be only a repetition of his already published doctrines. After 18os, finding himself attacked with a weakness in the limbs attended with frequent fits of falling, he mitigated the Spartan severity of his life, and consented to receive medical See also:advice. A See also:constant restlessness oppressed him; his sight gave way; his conversation became an extraordinary mixture of metaphors; and it was only at intervals that gleams of his former See also:power See also:broke out, especially when some old chord of association was struck in natural See also:science or physical geography. A few days before his decease, with a See also:great effort he thanked his medical attendant for his visits in the words, " I have not yet lost my feeling for humanity." On the 12th of See also:February 1804 he died, having almost completed his eightieth year. His stature was small, and his See also:appearance feeble. He was little more than five feet high; his See also:breast was almost See also:concave, and, like See also:Schleiermacher, he was deformed in the right See also:shoulder. His senses werequick and delicate; and, though of weak constitution, he escaped by strict regimen all serious illness. His life was arranged with See also:mechanical regularity; and, as he never married, he kept the habits of his studious youth to old See also:age. His See also:man-servant, who awoke him summer and See also:winter at five o'See also:clock, testified that he had not once failed in See also:thirty years to See also:respond to the See also:call. After rising he studied for two See also:hours, then lectured other two, and spent the See also:rest of the forenoon, till one, at his See also:desk. He then dined at a restaurant, which he frequently changed, to avoid the influx of strangers, who crowded to see and hear him. This was his only See also:regular See also:meal; and he often prolonged the conversation till See also:late in the afternoon. He then walked out for at least an See also:hour in all weathers, and spent the evening in lighter See also:reading, except an hour or two devoted to the preparation of his next day's lectures, after which he retired between nine and ten to rest. In his earlier years he often spent his evenings in See also:general society, where his knowledge and conversational talents made him the life of every party. He was especially intimate with the families of two See also:English merchants of the name of See also:Green and Motherby, where he found many opportunities of See also:meeting See also:ship-captains, and other travelled persons, and thus gratifying his See also:passion for physical geography. This social circle included also the celebrated J. G. See also:Hamann, the friend of Herder and See also:Jacobi, who was thus a mediator between Kant and these philosophical adversaries.
Kant's reading was of the most extensive and See also:miscellaneous See also:kind. He cared comparatively little for the history of See also:speculation, but his acquaintance with books of science, general history, travels and belles lettres was boundless. He was well versed in English literature, chiefly of the age of See also:Queen See also:Anne, and had read English philosophy from See also:Locke to See also:Hume, and the Scottish school. He was at See also:home in See also:Voltaire and See also: It was another principle that his See also:chief exertions should be bestowed on the intermediate class of See also:talent, as the geniuses would help themselves, and the dunces were beyond remedy. See also:Simple, See also:honourable, truthful, kind-hearted and high-minded as Kant was in all moral respects, he was somewhat deficient in the region of sentiment. He had little See also:enthusiasm for the beauties of nature, and indeed never sailed out into the Baltic, or travelled more than 40 See also:miles from Konigsberg. See also:Music he disregarded, and all See also:poetry that was more than sententious See also:prose. His ethics have been reproached with some See also:justice as setting up too low an ideal for the See also:female See also:sex. Though faithful in a high degree to the duties of friendship, he could not See also:bear to visit his friends in sickness, and after their death he repressed all allusion to their memory. His See also:engrossing intellectual labours no doubt tended somewhat to harden his See also:character; and in his zeal for rectitude of purpose he forgot the part which See also:affection and sentiment must ever See also:play in the human constitution. On the 12th of February 1904, the hundredth anniversary of Kant's death, a Kantian society (Kantgesellschaft) was formed at Halle under the leadership of See also:Professor H. Vaihinger to promote Kantian studies. In 1909 it had an See also:annual membership of 191; it supports the periodical Kantstudien (founded 1896; see BIBLIOGRAPHY, ad init.). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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