775Whereas most modern philosophers (such as Descartes, Berkeley, and Hume)
arrived at their basic philosophical positions early in life, Immanuel Kant did not
work out his views until well into middle age. Whereas the earlier thinkers wrote
major works when still young, Kant’s important pieces were written between the
ages of 57 and 67. Whereas the others’ works were written for a broad general audi-
ence and are relatively accessible to educated readers, Kant wrote in an academic
style that is notoriously difficult to follow. Whereas most of the earlier philosophers
traveled widely, Kant never left the provincial city in which he was born. Unlike his
predecessors, who held many different positions and practiced philosophy on the
side, Kant earned his living as a professor of philosophy. Yet Kant is the most
important and influential of all modern philosophers.
Kant was born, raised, lived, and died in the town of Königsberg in East
Prussia. His parents were lower middle-class, hard-working, simple folk. They
belonged to the Lutheran Pietist movement, which cultivated high moral standards
and personal devotion to God in Christ. Like Hume, who had a similar religious
upbringing (Calvinist Presbyterian), Kant was later critical of his background. But
unlike Hume, he remained a deeply religious man.
Through the intervention of his mother’s favorite preacher, who was also a pro-
fessor at the University of Königsberg, young Immanuel gained admittance to a
local high school. There he received a solid Pietist education and a firm grounding
in the classics. At 16, Kant was admitted to the university, where he planned to
study the classics. But under the influence of a strong teacher, Martin Knutzen,
Kant moved into philosophy and was attracted to the comprehensive scholasticism
of Christian Wolff (1679–1754), who had developed Leibniz’s philosophy into a
rationalistic system.IMMANUEL KANT
1724–1804