"All-Crushing" Critic of Metaphysics 241that Green had "undoubtedly a decisive influence on his [Kant's] heart and
character."^10 He probably also directly influenced the first Critique as well
as some of the later works. In any case, there are many phrases and idioms
in Kant's work that can be traced back to the language of merchants, such
as "borrowing," "capital," and so forth.^11 Furthermore, the works written
after Green's death are more difficult to read than the ones Kant wrote while
his friend was alive.
When Kant said he wrote the Critique in "four to five months" he was
referring, of course, only to the last stage of writing and copying the man¬
uscript for the printer. The final general outline went back at least a year
earlier, and some of the first drafts dated from the early seventies. Some
of these early drafts have survived — for instance, parts of the discussion
of the Principles of Pure Reason, the so-called Duisburg Nachlass, as well
as an early dedication of the Critique to Lambert from about October 1777.
It reads:
You have given me the honor of writing to me. At your request I attempted to develop
the concept of a method of pure philosophy, and this occasioned some observations
designed to refine that still obscure concept. As I progressed, the outlook widened, my
answer to you was delayed without end. This work may serve as an answer as far as the
speculative part is concerned. Since it is the result of your demand and suggestion
(Wink), I'd wish that you make it entirely your own by trying to develop it further...^12
Kant's work appeared too late for Lambert, however. He died in 1779.
Whether he would have understood (or liked) it better than his other con¬
temporaries is far from clear. In any case, there are many who would argue
that for the others it did not appear too late, but too early. The Critique of
Pure Reason would change, if not the world, then at least philosophy.
The first proofs arrived in Königsberg on April 6, 1781. Hamann read
them as they arrived in Königsberg and as Kant gave them to him. On
May 5, he was complaining about the length of the work. "Such a fat book
is neither fitting for the author's stature nor for the concept of pure reason,
which he opposes to the lazy and arse-like {ärschlich) reason, that is, my
very own reason, which loves the force of inertia and the hysteron proteron
from taste and purpose."^13 Finally, he received a bound copy of the entire
Critique on July 22, 1781, "for breakfast."^14
Kant's critical philosophy can be viewed as an attempt to answer three
fundamental questions of enduring philosophical significance: "What can
I know?" "What ought I to do?" and "What may I hope for?" He may be
said to address the first of these questions in the Critique of Pure Reason, but