2o6 Kant: A Biographyuntil 10:00. He also gave a course on encyclopedia every day from 10:00 un¬
til 11:00. In other words, he taught twenty-two hours a week.^65 In the
summer of 1776, he taught logic, theoretical physics, and physical geog¬
raphy, and held a "repetitorium" in logic. This meant he taught six fewer
hours than he had six years earlier. There were also other duties.
In the summer semester of 1776 Kant became dean of the faculty of
philosophy the first time. The deanship of the faculty of philosophy at the
University of Königsberg had to be taken up by the full professors in turn.
Kant served six times as dean. As a dean, he was also a member of the
senate, which was the body that supervised all academic and administra¬
tive matters. It also was the court in which all university disputes were de¬
cided, including those of academic citizens and their families.^66 Kant found
membership in this body to be a burden. Another duty of the dean was the
examination of the incoming students. There would have been some sev¬
enty or eighty of them.^67 Some of his colleagues accused Kant of not ex¬
amining the young people with the required strictness. He seems to have
been satisfied if the students did not betray "complete neglect." Nor did
he restrict their freedom as much as others would have liked, feeling that
"trees grow better when they stand and grow outside, and they bring more
fruit in this way than if they were grown by artifice in a hothouse.. ."^68
Kraus believed that Kant was not strict because he disliked the entire busi¬
ness and because it interfered with his other work, but there is also evi¬
dence that not everyone thought he was "easy" in his role as examiner. Thus
Jachmann told of an incident that supports a different view. When Jach-
mann was graduating from his high school in Königsberg, the director saw
to it that all the students were quickly taught another logical system. Mag¬
ister Weymann, "a follower of Crusius and a declared enemy of Kant" had
taught them philosophy.^69 The director feared that this might not be suf¬
ficient, and that Kant would fail his students.^70
In the next semester (the winter of 1776-77) Kant had to teach for the
first time a course on "practical pedagogic," which each of the professors
of the faculty in philosophy had to teach in turn. Not surprisingly, Kant
used Basedow's Methodenbuch of 1770, which applied his philosophy of
common sense in opposition to idealism as well as to "harmonism," that is,
to Leibniz.^71 The touchstone of common sense for Basedow was utility.
Only what is useful should be taught. We have already seen that Kant was
influenced by such ideas in his "Announcement." While he would not have
liked everything in this textbook, Kant did appreciate the spirit in which it
was written. When it was again Kant's turn to teach "practical pedagogic"