The Elegant Magister 131contain nothing of great interest.^143 In this respect they contrast sharply
with the notes from the lectures on moral philosophy and metaphysics,
which are very extensive and highly interesting.^144
The notes on moral philosophy show that Kant did indeed take the moral
sense to be the basis of morality. He talked of Hutcheson and claimed that
"one should investigate the feeling of the natural man, and this is better
than our artificial one: Rousseau has visited (aufgesucht) it."^145 The "su¬
preme law of morality is: act according to nature. My reason can err; my
moral feeling only when I uphold custom before natural feeling."^146 He
asked: "Does that mean we can establish moral law without God?" He
answered: "Of course it does." In fact it is easier to found it on our nature:
"the culture of moral feelings should precede the culture of obedience."^147
"Can an atheist be tolerated in society?" It depends: if they base their
atheism on moral grounds, they are dangerous and cannot be tolerated; if
their atheism is based on logical reasons, then they are "not so dangerous
for society."^148 Therefore, Spinoza should not have been damned. "Does
a Christian ethics have to precede philosophical ethics?" No, on the con¬
trary! When "Pietists make the idea of religion dominant in all conversa¬
tion and discourse, while it can be concluded from their common behavior
that this idea has lost the sense of novelty, they are nothing but gossips."^149
The Spartans let their females walk naked "until they were nine - the males
until thirteen ... our artificial virtues are chimerical and so vice originates
when what is hidden is regarded as vice."^150 "Society is the true spice of
life, and it makes the dignified (würdige) person useful; and when the learned
cannot converse, this is the result of their assiduity, or of the scorn of so¬
ciety. The latter is founded on the lack of knowledge of the world and the
value of scholarship. The scholar must be able to converse with all classes
because he is outside of all classes.. ."1S1
Rousseau plays an important role in these lectures, and this is not just
due to Herder's literary preferences. Kant himself had come under the
influence of Rousseau. In a famous autobiographical reflection from this
period, found in the "Remarks on the Observations of the Beautiful and
Sublime" ("Bemerkungen zu den Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen
und Erhabenen"), he mused:
I am myself by inclination a seeker after truth. I feel a consuming thirst for knowledge
and a restless passion to advance in it, as well as a satisfaction in every forward step.
There was a time when I thought that this alone could constitute the honor of mankind,
and I despised the rabble who knows nothing. Rousseau set me right. This blind pre¬
judice vanishes; I learn to respect human nature, and I should consider myself far more