The Old Man 395scurantism. One of the ironies of his attack on Schlosser's "noble" phi¬
losophy was that he also attacked "His Majesty" in Berlin.
Kant defined as "noble" any philosophy that does not methodically and
slowly develop its insights but is visionary and based on what may be called
intellectual intuition. Its motto is "Away with the hair splitting based on
concepts, let the philosophy of feeling live, which leads us directly to the
thing itself." This "most recent German wisdom," opposed to the "man¬
ufacture of forms," that is, critical philosophy, promises "secrets that can
be felt."^51 Kant dismissed the "new proprietors" of secret philosophical
truths, just as he dismissed ascetics, alchemists, and Freemasons.^52
Though Kant never mentioned the name "Schlosser," he had quoted
from the notes to his book. Schlosser quite justifiably felt attacked and
wrote a response entitled "Letter to a Young Man who Intended to Study
the Critical Philosophy," which appeared in 1797. In it, Schlosser argued
that Kant was destroying Christianity, ruining the lives of many in the
process. He even said that Kant should not be allowed to keep his office,
thus encouraging the conservative forces in Berlin to do even more.
Kant responded to this attack in his "Announcement of the Soon to
Be Completed Tract on Eternal Peace in Philosophy."^53 He characterized
Schlosser as wanting "to relax from the administration of law, which stands
under authority and is enforceable, but not wanting to engage in complete
leisure," and as stepping "unexpectedly into the battle field of meta¬
physics, where there are many more bitter disputes than in the field he just
left."^54 After recapitulating the main tenets of his own philosophy, he
shows that Schlosser's critique of critical philosophy is based on mistakes
and that Schlosser is out of his depth. Schlosser does not, and cannot, know
what he is talking about. Either he is simply incompetent or he is pre¬
tending, which is a form of lying. He concludes by claiming that if those
who deal in philosophical questions were truly honest with themselves and
others, peace in philosophy would have been accomplished.
This dispute with Schlosser was, of course, also a dispute about religion
and its relation to philosophy, but Kant was very careful not to transgress
into the religious arena. Bound by his word, he could not openly talk about
religious problems, but he did his best to show the weakness of this philoso¬
pher of intuition and mystical faith, hoping that his criticism of Schlosser
and his "noble" mysticism in philosophy would be recognized in Berlin for
what it was: a criticism of the Rosicrucian mysticism of Frederick William II
and his ministers.