Immanuil Kant German philosopher Date of Birth: 22.04.1724 Country: Germany

1. Immanuel Kant: The Great German Philosopher
2. According to the historian, Kant was brilliant even in his mistakes.

Immanuel Kant: The Great German Philosopher

A German philosopher known for his pedantry and meticulousness, Immanuel Kant lived the life of a bachelor, indulging in fine wine and the company of beautiful women until the end of his days. Despite his reputation for pedantry, Kant's teachings focused on the principles of moral perfection. Esteemed at the Prussian court, he was not particularly beloved or favored. After his passing, the city's grief-stricken residents bade farewell to their brilliant fellow citizen for two weeks, only to auction off his house to a merchant for a tavern within half a year.

"Immanuel Kant can be boldly called the most enigmatic and iconic figure of Königsberg," asserts Veronika Chernysheva, a researcher at the Kaliningrad Historical-Artistic Museum. "Despite the fact that his entire life was connected to this city and lived in full view of his townsfolk, and the first biography of the philosopher was written during his lifetime, Kant's name is still shrouded in incredible legends and myths."

The great wit always took pride in his Königsberg heritage and had no idea that his treatises would become the subject of intense claims and disputes between the West and the East upon his death. In Europe, it was claimed that Newton's discoveries formed the basis of Kant's work. In Asia, there is still the belief that his work was based on the reasoning of Imam Ghazali and al-Arabi. There is even a claim that, on the margins of one of his autobiographies, Kant wrote in Arabic: "In the name of the merciful and compassionate God!" This is merely a legend, but a beautiful one nonetheless.

The author of the most famous legend in the post-Soviet space is rightfully considered Mikhail Bulgakov. The story of Messire Voland, who in the opening pages of "The Master and Margarita" tells Berlioz and Bezrodny about his breakfast with Professor Kant, appears more than convincing.

"A small episode in the novel, a few mentions of Immanuel, whom the ardent and young Ivan Bezrodny yearns to send to the Solovki Islands, has again provided grounds for serious study and discourse," notes Chernysheva. "But we have to refute Bulgakov. First, Kant never formulated five proofs for the existence of God. His work systematizes the thoughts of his predecessors—the philosophers of antiquity—and focuses on only three postulates: the theological, the ontological, and the cosmological. By combining their formulations, Kant actually criticized these views, for which he fell into fierce disfavor with the church. After his death, some theologians wanted to attribute to the philosopher a fourth proof of God's existence—a moral one, formulated as 'the realization of our duties as divine commandments.' But Kant, not being particularly afraid of being branded an atheist, often told his students: 'In the realm of reason, there have been and can be no proofs of His existence.'"

However, if we nevertheless agree to accept the coordinate system of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel, then such a delicate historical nuance would be legitimate: Voland undoubtedly visited Königsberg. In any other city in the world, breakfast with Kant could not have taken place—the philosopher never left his small homeland, for which he received the nickname "the Prussian recluse" during his lifetime. So, for the sake of a theological dispute with the brilliant man, Satan came to visit him in Königsberg.

"Life could hardly have held great promise for the son of a poor harness maker, had it not been for his unquenchable thirst for knowledge," continues Veronika Chernysheva. "Having lost his mother and father at an early age, Kant led a wretched existence in his youth. Poverty pursued the great thinker almost until his death: only in his later years was he able to afford to buy a small house. Having entered Königsberg University, young Kant was unable to finish it—for the same reason: financial difficulties. He earned his living by any means necessary—from tutoring to playing billiards and cards. It often happened that, to venture out into the city, the future honorary citizen of Königsberg would borrow shoes from his fellow students at his alma mater."

It is believed that Kant was a great pedant. But in his youth, he was not at all obligatory and interpreted the concept of "punctuality" quite liberally. He was almost forcibly accustomed to scrupulous accuracy in everything by his friend, the English merchant Green. The Englishman did not forgive Kant for the slightest delays and arranged a variety of demarches and frank reprimands on every occasion. With age, pedantic precision and accuracy became a habit. The townsfolk set their clocks by seeing the elderly Kant out for a walk. He disliked unkempt students and resolutely ignored toothless interlocutors. Punctuality, pedantry, and adherence to traditions so defined Kant's way of life and emotional comfort that they reached the point of absurdity: for example, the dismissal of the rude and arrogant servant Martin Lamke led to a heart attack.

But Veronika Chernysheva assures that, having become the epitome of accuracy and even asceticism, Kant managed to preserve the ardor of the desperate student of Albertina—Königsberg University.

"He adored wine and despised beer," she says. "In one of his works, Kant gave the drink made from malt and hops a very unflattering assessment: 'Beer—the food of bad taste.' He always treated female beauty with reverence. Already an old man, during receptions and ceremonial dinners, he always asked one of the young beauties to sit next to him at the table on the right side. At that time, everyone in Königsberg knew that the philosopher was blind in his left eye."

Despite his adoration of the fair sex, Kant never married. The reason why he was unable to make up his mind to start a family was very prosaic: poverty. Kant made fun of his bachelor existence, saying that when he needed a woman, he could not feed her, and when his position allowed him to support a wife, the need for one had passed. But he also said that nothing justified celibacy.

"Kant was never a dissident," states Veronika Chernysheva. "On the contrary, his first, not yet very mature works, which in his old age he tried to disown, the philosopher dedicated to the governor of Königsberg and Emperor Frederick II. Nevertheless, Kant's academic career progressed with great difficulty. Intelligent people always irritate those in power..."

During the Seven Years' War, East Prussia became part of the Russian Empire. In March 1758, the newly minted subject of Elizabeth Petrovna petitioned his empress to grant him the vacant chair of logic and metaphysics at the university. The petition did not reach the empress. The governor of East Prussia, Nikolai Korf, who examined the petition in essence, refused the philosopher on the typical bureaucratic grounds: another candidate for the vacancy had more experience in teaching, which decided the issue against Kant. By the middle of the 18th century, all of Europe admired his talent. At the Prussian court, the philosopher was also esteemed, but not beloved or favored. Kant's requests for the further development of Albertina and his own prospects were brazenly delayed.

According to the historian, Kant was brilliant even in his mistakes.

"In his lectures on physical geography, the philosopher told his students that a fish called the sturgeon lives in Russia, that in order to sink to the bottom, it swallows stones. And under Orenburg, there live small people with small tails. However, not all of his paradoxical statements were far from the truth. Consider, for example, this: 'In distant Siberia live Muslims, pagans, and Christians. Muslims generally do not drink strong drink. But nowhere in the world do the other inhabitants indulge in drunkenness as much as there.'"

Unbeknownst to himself, Immanuel Kant entered into an indirect polemic with a yet-to-be-born opponent, Vladimir Lenin. The outrageous thesis of the leader of the world proletariat that even a cook is capable of governing the state was anticipated by the Prussian recluse with a caustic aphorism: "And which of the statesmen themselves can comprehend the true art of cooks?"

With fame came all its attendant costs for Kant. Even during the thinker's lifetime, adventurers appeared all over Europe, calling themselves his children. Languid beauties from high society hastened to inform the world that they had been beloved by the great philosopher. As a rule, such revelations concealed mercenary interests.

"Kant died a wealthy man," notes Veronika Chernysheva. "He left a fortune of 20,000 guilders to his three sisters and brother. The philosopher's death caused genuine grief throughout the city. Suffice it to say that instead of the customary three days, the civil farewell ceremony lasted for almost two weeks. On February 28, the teacher's coffin was carried by 28 of Albertina's finest students. The city was in mourning: Königsberg had lost its greatest son."

But the grief of the inhabitants did not prevent them from discrediting the memory of the Prussian recluse. Less than half a year after the author of "Critique of Practical Reason" had died, his house was sold to a merchant for a tavern. The faint voices of Kant's indignant colleagues were drowned out by a sea of indifference. None of the philosopher's relatives or wealthy friends even tried to protest. Ninety years later, the house was demolished. The reason? A very pragmatic one: the new owners needed a place for a ladies' hat store. In 1924, Europe was preparing to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the great philosopher's birth. In order to "save face," the mayor of Königsberg, under pressure from the "Society of Friends of Kant," forced the merchants to hang a memorial plaque