360 Kant: A Biographyhim with 300 Thalers. At that time Kant gave not only his regular lectures
but also a private recitation, in which a select few of his students could talk
to him about philosophical matters. Kiesewetter stayed until 1789, and in
1790 he came back for another three months. Kiesewetter adored Kant, fre¬
quently referring to him as his "second father in later times."^120 Beginning
with his Grundriss der reinen allgemeinen Logik nach Kantischen Grundsätzen
(1791), he became an ardent popularizer of Kant's philosophy.
Kant was not just visited; he also received the manuscripts of promis¬
ing young philosophers who had written on his work. Thus he wrote on
May 26, 1789, to Herz, who had sent him a manuscript by Salomon Mai-
mon: "What were you thinking when you sent me such a great package of
the most subtle inquiries not just for reading but also for thinking through.
I am burdened in my sixty-sixth year with the extensive task of complet¬
ing my plan, that is, I must deliver the final part of the Critique, namely
the Faculty of Judgment, which should appear soon, and work out the
metaphysics of nature as well as the metaphysics of morals. Furthermore,
I am constantly kept out of breath by many letters, which demand special
explanations about particular points, and this while I am always of uncer¬
tain health."^121 The manuscript was Maimon's Essay on Transcendental
Philosophy with an Appendix on Symbolic Cognition and Notes, which ap¬
peared in 1790. Maimon, who on his visit to Königsberg could not visit
Kant's lectures, had read the first Critique and tried his best to consider
Kant's problem in an even wider extent than Kant himself had been will¬
ing to do. Maimon found that "there was much scope left for the full force
of Hume's scepticism" and that "the complete solution of this problem
leads either to Spinozistic or Leibnizian dogmatism."^122 Maimon was just
as much influenced by the pantheism dispute as he was by the Critique. But
Kant liked the work, telling Herz that he was about to send the manuscript
back with an excuse, but that a glance at it persuaded him otherwise. None
of his opponents had understood him as well. Maimon's enquiries were
profound, acute, and important. The book should be published.
Even specialists found the book difficult. The Allgemeine Literaturzeitung
wrote to Maimon, "three of the best speculative thinkers have declined
the review of your book, because they are unable to penetrate into the
depth of your researches. An application has been made to a fourth, from
whom a favorable reply was expected; but a review from him has not yet
been received."^123 Maimon, who tried to steer Kant's critical philosophy
into a more skeptical direction, became one of the most important Kant¬
ian philosophers, but he was a philosopher's philosopher. He did not help