86 Kant: A Biographyhimself was not very mechanically inclined - he later often asked his stu¬
dents to construct physically impossible mechanical models — he also did
not find the proper support in the University of Königsberg. Teske's elec¬
trical experiments were perhaps the closest he got to real experiments in
the sciences. Anything of interest in Kant's early writings on physics at¬
tests therefore at least as much to his ingenuity as to his education.
Estimation of the Living Forces:
"What Unlocked Kant's Genius?"Borowski agreed with Kraus that Kant came into his own around 1744,
but, more sensibly, he picked out Kant's first work as revealing his inde¬
pendent genius, claiming that Kant "began to work on the Thoughts on the
True Estimation of Living Forces... four years after entering the univer¬
sity."^113 Borowski also claimed that it was "Knutzen «m/Teske" who con¬
verted Kant from a study of the classics to philosophy, and who led him
in "an unexpected direction," namely, into "the barren fields of philosophy."
Their "philosophical, physical, and mathematical lectures, which were
indeed excellent for awakening genius and were very entertaining (many
of Teske's students still gratefully remember him), powerfully attracted
Kant." Borowski says nothing about the comet. Instead, he refers the reader
to the Preface to Kant's first work as evidence.^114
Kant's Preface does not tell us what brought him to write this work. It
is an apology of sorts. Kant admits that it might be considered presump¬
tuous of him — a completely unknown author - to criticize such famous
thinkers as Newton and Leibniz. He argues that such an undertaking,
while it would have been dangerous in earlier times, is now appropriate:
"We may now boldly dare to regard the fame of Newton and Leibniz as
nothing whenever it would stand in the way of the discovery of the truth,"
and we should "obey no other authority than that of the understand¬
ing."^115 Later in the text he says of metaphysics: "Our science, like many
others, has indeed reached only the threshold of a genuinely thorough
science. It is not difficult to recognize the weakness in many of the things
it attempts. One finds often that prejudice is the greatest strength of its
proofs."^116 Neither Teske nor Knutzen are mentioned here (or indeed in
any other of his published works).^117 Instead, we find Kant affirming his
belief that "at times it is not without benefit to have a certain noble trust
in one's ability" and that it might not be the best approach to continue on
"the broad highway."^118 He goes out of his way to "declare publicly" that