Kant: Philosophy in an Hour. Paul Strathern

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      Kant now also began delivering lectures on philosophy, and here it soon became apparent that he had journeyed far and wide through the hostile territories of ethics and epistemology, beyond the ultima Thule of logic and even into regions so remote from civilisation as metaphysics (and had lived to tell the tale). Meanwhile treatises on more amenable subjects, such as fireworks, military defense, and the theory of the heavens, continued to pour from his pen. Despite this, Kant was twice refused a professorship at the University of Königsberg. The reasons for this are unclear, but one suspects an element of provincial snobbery. Or perhaps they just didn’t like him. Either way, Kant certainly liked Königsberg. When he was offered the prestigious post of professor of poetry at the University of Berlin, he turned it down.

      Fortunately in 1770 the Königsberg University authorities relented, and Kant was appointed professor of logic and metaphysics. Now, at age forty-six, he had grown increasingly critical of Leibniz and his rationalistic disciples who had become the dominant force in German philosophy. Hume’s empiricism seemed undeniable, and reluctantly Kant even became convinced by Hume’s skepticism. Objects, cause and effect, continuity, even the self – all these appeared to be fallacious notions. They remained beyond the reach of our experience, which was the only certain source of our knowledge. Kant accepted this because it seemed to him intellectually irrefutable. But he was not happy with this barren state of affairs. There appeared to be no further room for philosophy to continue. Was this really the end?

      Then one day, while studying Hume’s Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Kant “awoke from his dogmatic slumbers.” In a flash of inspiration he saw how he could construct a system and answer the destructive skepticism of Hume which had threatened to destroy metaphysics forever.

      For eleven years Kant published nothing, but continued working out his philosophy. Already he had begun living a life of extreme regularity, and during this period his routine began to achieve legendary status. In the words of Heine: “Rising, coffee drinking, writing, lecturing, dining, walking, each had its set time. And when Immanuel Kant, in his grey coat, cane in hand, appeared at the door of his house, and strolled towards the small avenue of linden trees which is still called ‘The Philosopher’s Walk,’ the neighbours knew that it was exactly half past three by the clock. So he promenaded up and down, during all seasons; and when the weather was gloomy, or the grey clouds threatened rain, his old servant Lampe was to be seen plodding anxiously after, with a large umbrella under his arm, like a symbol of Prudence.” Only on one famous occasion is Kant said to have broken this routine: on the day he started reading Rousseau’s Émile,

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