"All-Crushing" Critic of Metaphysics 273parts of Hume's On Human Nature''' — another hot topic of conversation
among Green, Hamann, and Kant.^96
Jachmann tells the following story:Kant... would find Green sleeping in his easy chair, sat down beside him, reflected
on his own ideas, and also fell asleep; the bank director Ruffmann, who usually came
after Kant, did the same, until Motherby came into the room at a certain time and woke
them. They then spent the time until 7:00 P.M. engaging in the most interesting con¬
versations. The fellowship broke up so punctually at 7:00 P.M. that I often heard neigh¬
bors say that it could not be yet 7:00 because professor Kant had not yet passed by.^97
On Saturdays they would stay until 9:00 P.M., and were usually joined by the
Scottish merchant Hay. Before leaving they would have an evening meal
that consisted of cold sandwiches.
This is how Kant would spend most of his days: He still got up at 5:00,
drank his tea and smoked his pipe. He then prepared his lectures. In par¬
ticular, he lectured on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from
7:00 to 8:00 A.M. on metaphysics (during the winter semester) or logic
(during the summer semester), and from 8:00 to 9:00 on natural theology
or ethics; on Wednesdays and Saturdays he taught physical geography and
anthropology from 7:00 or 8:00 to 10:00 A.M.^98 He also sometimes held
exercises in logic or metaphysics on Saturday. After his teaching, Kant
worked some more on his books until 12:00. He then got formally dressed,
went out to eat, and spent the afternoon in the company of his friends, talk¬
ing about everything worth talking about (and probably some things not
worth talking about), did some more reading and working in the evening,
and then went to bed.^99
This was, for the most part, a life that was not untypical of professors
in Königsberg and elsewhere in Germany. The only thing that was perhaps
not typical about Kant's life was the great role that socializing with his
friends assumed in it. Kant was a very gregarious and social being — not
so much the solitary, isolated, and somewhat comical figure that many have
come to see in him. Dialogue was more important to him than many people
now want to admit. His critical philosophy is an expression of this form
of life, and it makes sense first and foremost in the context of this form of
life. What Kant "crushed," or meant to crush, in his Critique were the
monsters that impeded this life. It was born of dialogue, something that
the large role of "dialectic" in it should already have made more than clear.
As such, it can also be seen as an attempt to show why different positions
within the conversation should not be assumed dogmatically to present the