KANT, IMMANUEL , German philosopher, was born at Konigsberg on April 22, 1724. His grandfather was an emigrant from Scotland. His father was a master-saddler in Konigsberg, then a stronghold of Pietism, to the strong influence of which Kant was subjected in his early years. In his tenth year he was entered at the Collegium Fredericianum with the definite view of studying theology. His inclination at this time was towards classics, and he was recognized, with his school-fellow, David Ruhnken, as among the most promising classical scholars of the college. His taste for the greater Latin authors, particularly Lu cretius, was never lost, and he acquired at school an unusual facil ity in Latin composition. With Greek authors he does not appear to have been equally familiar. During his university course, which began in 1740, Kant was principally attracted towards mathe matics and physics. Though he attended courses on theology, and even preached on one or two occasions, he appears to have given up the intention of entering the church. His father died in 1746, and for nine years he earned his own living as a private tutor.
In 1755 Kant became tutor in the family of Count Kayserling. By the kindness of a friend named Richter, he was enabled to resume his university career, and in the autumn of that year he graduated as doctor and qualified as Privatdozent. For 15 years he remained a Privatdozent, his fame as writer and lecturer stead ily increasing. Though twice he failed to obtain a professorship at Konigsberg, he steadily refused appointments elsewhere. The only academic preferment received by him during the lengthy pro bation was the post of under-librarian (1766). His lectures, at first mainly upon physics, gradually expanded until nearly all de scriptions of philosophy were included under them.
In 1770 he obtained the chair of logic and metaphysics at Konigsberg, and delivered as his inaugural address the dissertation De inundi sensibilis et intelligibilis forma et principiis. Eleven years later appeared the Kritik der reinen V ernunf t (1781 ; and enl. ed. 1787), the 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 introduc tion to the Kritik, which had been found to stand in need of some explanatory comment.
In spite of its frequent obscurity, its novel terminology, and its declared opposition to prevailing systems, the Kantian philos ophy made rapid progress in Germany. In the course of io or 12 years from the publication of the Kritik der reinen V ernunft, it was expounded in all the leading universities, and it even penetrated into the schools of the Church of Rome. J. Schulz in Konigs berg, J. G. Kiesewetter in Berlin, Jakob in Halle, Born and A. L. Heydenreich in Leipzig, K. L. Reinhold and E. Schmid in Jena, Buhle in Gottingen, Tennemann in Marburg, and Sneli in Giessen, with many others, made it the basis of their philosophical teach ing, while the theologians Tief trunk, Staudlin, and Ammon eagerly applied it to Christian doctrine and morality. Young men flocked to Konigsberg as to a shrine of philosophy. The Prussian Gov ernment even undertook the expense of their support. Kant was hailed by some as a second Messiah. He was consulted as an oracle on all questions of casuistry—as, for example, on the law fulness of inoculation for the small-pox. This universal homage for a long time left Kant unaffected ; it was only in his later years that he spoke of his system as the limit of philosophy, and resented all further progress. He still pursued his quiet round of lecturing and authorship, and contributed from time to time papers to the literary journals. Of these, among the most remarkable was his review of Herder's Philosophy of History, which greatly exas perated that author, and led to a violent act of retaliation some years after in his Metakritik der reinen V ernunft. Schiller at this period in vain sought to engage Kant upon his Horen.