430 Notes to Pages 32—34
- Ak 9, pp. 477f.
- Wasianski, Kant, p. 246.
- Wasianski, Kant, p. 247.
- These questions might appear Strange, but they are raised by the Böhmes in Das
Andere der Vernunft, pp. 483 f. - Böhme and Böhme, Das Andere der Vernunft, p. 484, argue that Kant was fixated
on his mother all of his life. Part of their "reasoning" is based on false informa¬
tion. They claim that Kant was the first surviving child of his parents, which is false.
Kant had an older sister. They also claim that Kant's father had "no influence on
the son," that he was "extensively disregarded (ausgeblendet).'''' Yet it is Kant's bi¬
ographers, not necessarily Kant himself, who disregard the father. One should not
read too much into the words of the early biographers. There were reasons for the
early biographers' emphasis on the mother, but they were quite different from the
reasons the Böhmes suspect - as we shall see. Furthermore, Rink, Ansichten, p. 13,
noted: "He [Kant] thankfully carried in his heart the image of his father even in his
later years. But, if possible, he remembered his mother with greater tenderness."
Rink constantly spoke of his "parents," and not just of the mother. - Vorländer, Immanuel Kant, I, p. 19, drew certain conclusions about the income
of Kant's father from this fact. I doubt that this is possible. Given their religious
convictions, ostentation of any kind was foreign to them. The simple burials that
his mother and his father received were probably just what they considered ap¬
propriate. Furthermore, as a decree from 1748 shows, the practice of burying
one's relatives "silently" appears to have become rather common during the for¬
ties. It was found necessary to tighten the rules regarding who could be buried in
this fashion. See Ludwig Ernst Borowski, Neue Preußische Kirchenregistratur...
(Königsberg, 1789), pp. i8f, 2Ö9f. Indeed, many of the poorest citizens of Königs¬
berg, who could not afford the fees, buried their relatives illegally out of town. At
the same time, merchants were insisting on the most luxurious funerals (reserved
for nobility), although rules were made that prohibited them from driving to a
funeral by carriage, for instance. See Gause, Königsberg, II, p. 59. As a Pietist,
Kant's father might have thought that "silence" was more appropriate than pomp,
even if he could have afforded it. Accordingly, one must be careful not to draw too
definite a conclusion about a family's financial status from how they buried their
dead. See also Paul Graff, Geschichte der Auflösung der alten gottesdienstlichen For¬
men in der evangelischen Kirche Deutschlands, II, Die Zeit der Außlärung und des Ra¬
tionalismus (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Rupprecht, 1939), p. 278. - It is not clear what the tax rate was, but 36 Thalers was significant. The rent for a
small apartment was 40 Thalers a year, and a student was expected to live on 200
Thalers a year. - This is the same uncle who took in Kant's younger brother after their mother died.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the younger brother felt closer to this family than did
Emanuel. - See Wasianski, Kant, pp. 245f.
- His oldest sister probably died in 1792 without ever having married. His second
sister (Maria Elisabeth, born on January 2,1727) married and then divorced around
1768. She received from her brother Immanuel support after her divorce until she