Founder of a Metaphysics of Morals 301called upon by nature itself to contribute toward this progress to the best
of his ability."^110 Perhaps there was a personal component to Kant's cri¬
tique of Herder, but if there was, it was much less significant than Herder
believed. Kant had begun to view himself as a political force, contributing
to the progress of mankind.
Hamann disliked Kant's essay "What is Enlightenment?" for reasons
very similar to Herder's, and he continued to write against Kant, even
though he published none of these attempts. Thus he asked in a letter to
Kraus, written on the fourth Sunday of Advent in 1785, "what kind of con¬
science does it take for a thinker (Raisonneur) and a speculator (Spekulant),
who sits with his night cap behind his stove, to accuse those of minority of
cowardice, when their guardian has a well-disciplined army to vouchsafe
his infallibility and orthodoxy. How can one make fun of their laziness, if
their enlightened and self-thinking guardian... does not even consider
them to be machines but mere shadows of his own greatness.. .P"^11 ' What
bothered Hamann had also bothered Lessing long before, when he wrote
to Nicolai: "please do not talk to me about your Berlin freedom; it is re¬
ally confined to the single freedom of bringing to market scurrilous anti-
religious pamphlets.... Just wait until someone should appear in Berlin
to raise his voice for the rights of subjects and against exploitation and des¬
potism ... you will then see what country in Europe is in fact characterized
by the worst slavery at the present day."^112 The Prussia of Frederick the
Great might be a great place for "examined" intellectuals like Kant, but —
or so Hamann thought — it was hardly a great place to live. Kant's essay
added insult to injury.
Though he tried to excuse Kant's behavior to Herder, and though he
never completely approved of Herder's Ideas, Hamann was intellectually
closer to Herder than to Kant. While it is perhaps no accident that begin¬
ning in about 1785 the letters between Hamann and Herder decreased in
number, this did not mean that Hamann disapproved of Herder's project.
Just as Herder's importance in Hamann's correspondence decreased, the
importance of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi increased greatly.
Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science:
"All Natural Science Proper Requires a Pure Part"On March 28, 1785, Hamann had written to Herder that Kant was work¬
ing on "new contributions to the Berlinische Monatsschrift, on his Meta¬
physics of Nature and on Physics. The principium of his morality will also