Kant: A Biography

32 Kant: A Biography

had been most important for the first formation of his character, as well as

for having laid the foundation for what he later became. He was very dear

to her, and he felt favored. In his lectures on anthropology, we find him say¬

ing that it is usually the fathers who spoil their daughters and the mothers

who spoil their sons, and that mothers will prefer sons who are lively and

bold.^25 Yet he also said that sons usually love their fathers more than their

mothers, because

children, if they have not yet been spoiled, really love pleasures that are connected with

toils. ... In general, mothers spoil... their children. Yet we find that the children -

especially sons - love their fathers more than their mothers. This results from the fact

that the mothers do not allow them to jump and run, etc. because they are afraid they

might hurt themselves. The father, who yells at them, and perhaps also spanks them

when they are unruly, also leads them at times into the fields where they can behave

like boys and allows them to run around, play and be happy.^26

While this is not necessarily an account of his own relation to mother and

father, there is every reason to believe that he loved them both, if perhaps

in different ways.

Emanuel's mother was better educated than most women in the eigh¬

teenth century. She wrote well. Indeed, she appears to have taken care of

most writing in the family. She took him out on walks, "called his attention

to objects of nature and many of its appearances, even told him what she

knew of the nature of the sky, and admired his keen understanding and his

advanced comprehension."^27

His grandmother died in 1735. Sad as this event must have been, it may

have made things easier. There was one less mouth to feed, less work for

the mother, and more room for the children. In November of the same year,

Anna Regina gave birth to another child, a son (Johann Heinrich). Two years

later (on December 18,1737), she died at the age of forty, worn out by nine

pregnancies and the strain of taking care of her family.

As Emanuel was just thirteen when his mother died, her death affected

him greatly. He is reported to have given in old age the following account

of his mother's death:

[She] had a friend, whom she loved dearly. Her friend was engaged to a man to whom
she had given her whole heart, without violating her innocence and virtue. Though the
man had promised to marry her, he broke his promise and married someone else. As a
consequence of the pain and suffering, the deceived woman came down with a deadly
high fever. She refused to take the medicine prescribed for her. Kant's mother, who
nursed her on her deathbed, tried to give her a full spoon of the medicine; but her sick
friend refused it, claiming it had a disgusting taste. Kant's mother believed that the