Prologue 21early philosophical work developed as a series of responses to the philo¬
sophical Preisaufgaben set by the Berlin academy.^65 It is just as difficult to
understand the early Kant without discussing his relation to the literary
movement of "Sturm und Drang" and the "cult of genius," as it would be
to understand the late Kant without considering the controversy surround¬
ing the so-called Pantheismusstreit.
Furthermore, Kant was part of Königsberg's particular intellectual
milieu. He was not the only one in Königsberg who was interested in and
affected by these changes. Hamann, von Hippel, Herder, Herz, and sev¬
eral others were able to contribute to the German cultural scene — at least
in part — because of their experiences in Königsberg. It is important to
investigate how the lives of these interesting people intersected, and how
Kant was shaped by his interactions with them. While it might be an ex¬
aggeration to speak of a "Königsberg Enlightenment" in the way in which
we speak of a "Berlin Enlightenment" and a "Scottish Enlightenment," it
would not be entirely inappropriate either. Kant's critical philosophy needs
to be seen in that context as well. So, in discussing Kant's life and works
all three contexts — the global, the regional, and the local — must be taken
into account.
In this biography of Kant such concerns will be taken more seriously
than they have been in previous biographies. In other words, this will be
an intellectual biography of Kant that shows how Kant's intellectual con¬
cerns were rooted in his period. In some ways, such an approach has sim¬
ilarities to such developmental studies as those of Schilpp, Vleeschauwer,
and Ward, and such discussions of Kant's Weltanschauung as can be found
in the works of Kroner and Beck. Yet it is different from these insofar as
it pays less attention to standard philosophical texts and more attention to
the events in Kant's life and their relation to events in Königsberg, Prussia,
Germany, Europe, and North America. Without neglecting the represen¬
tation of the biographical details of Kant's life and his work, I will concen¬
trate on Kant's intellectual journey from narrow concerns with the meta¬
physical foundations of Newtonian physics to the philosophical defense of
a moral outlook appropriate to an enlightened "citizen of the world."
Like Vorländer and Gulyga, I mean to present Kant in such a way that
he is approachable for someone who is not well versed in Kant scholar¬
ship. Even a reader who is unfamiliar with the intricacies of the current
philosophical discussion of Kant or philosophy in general should find the
book readable. Kant's life is intrinsically interesting, and, unlike Vorländer
and others, who primarily wanted to bring to life the older Kant, I shall