Notes to Pages 17-26 427
Biographie, ed. Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wis¬
senschaften (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1952-1982), II, pp. 110-125.
- J. H. W. Stuckenberg. The Life of Immanuel Kant (London: MacMillan, 1882;
reprinted with a Preface by Rolf George, Lanham: The University Press of Amer¬
ica, 1987). Ernst Cassirer, Kant's Life and Thought, tr. James Haden, Introduction
by Stefan Körner (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1981), a trans¬
lation of Ernst Cassirer. Kants Leben und Lehre (Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1918;
2nd ed. 1921; reprinted Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1977).
Arsenij Gulyga. Immanuel Kant and His Life and Thought, tr. M. Despalatovic
(Boston: Birkhauser, 1987).
- George, "The Lives of Kant," p. 493.
- There are signs of change. See, for instance, Ray Monk's Ludwig Wittgenstein: The
Duty of Genius (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1090).
- This is a biographical detail that is not understood by most Kant scholars.
- In this I follow Stavenhagen's lead as well as Otto Schöndörffer, "Der elegante
Magister," Reichls Philosophischer Almanack (1924), pp. 65-86, as well as other
more recent discussions of Kant.
Chapter 1: Childhood and Early Youth (1724—1740)
- The most important occasion for the ire of the zealots in Halle was Wolff's for¬
mal address to the university, "Über die praktische Philosophie der Chineser" (On
the Practical Philosophy of the Chinese) of 1721, in which he argued that ethics
was not dependent on revelation, that Chinese ethics and Christian ethics were not
fundamentally different, that happiness need not have a religious basis, and that
reason was a sufficient principle in ethics.
- The result was an order by the king issued on November 15, 1725, which com¬
manded Fischer to leave Königsberg within twenty-four hours and Prussia within
forty-eight hours because "he had dared in his classes to dishonorably defame
some of the professors newly appointed by the king, and because he already had
earlier followed and defended the evil principle of Professor Wolff who has been
removed from Halle." Erich Riedesel, Pietismus und Orthodoxie in Ostpreußen. Auf
Grund des Briefwechsels von G. F. Rogall und F. A Schultz mit den Halleschen Pietisten
(Königsberg: Ost-Europa Verlag, 1937), p. 39. See also Paul Konschel, "Christian
Gabriel Fischer, ein Gesinnungs- und Leidensgenosse Christian Wolffs in Königs¬
berg," Altpreussische Monatsschrift 53 (1916), pp. 416-444.
- See Hasse, Merkwürdige Äußerungen, pp. I5f. He reported that Kant, in his last
years, claimed he had learned this from Hasse himself. Hasse was right, of course,
when he pointed out that Kant had thus explained his name long before. The episode
provides evidence for how confused Kant was during his final years. But the fact
remains that Kant was named "Emanuel," but had called himself "Immanuel"
since at least 1746. In the summer of 1746, when his book was submitted to the
censor, he is listed as "Immanuel Kandt." See Ak 1, p. 524. His father had died in
March, and it is not improbable that he changed his name only after that.
- I shall not say much about Kant's ancestry. It is well known that he himself be¬
lieved that his father's ancestors had come from Scotland, but there is extensive
