Contemporary Accounts of Kant’s Lectures and Notes
The vast majority of the following excerpts come from Rudolph Malter’s fine collection of texts on Kant’s life [1990], and the original German can be consulted there. You can also locate these accounts from an index alphabetized by author.
1750s
Ludwig Ernst Borowski (1740-1831) was an early student of Kant's and later close acquaintance. The following comes from his 1804 biography of Kant:
I attended his first lecture in 1755. He lived then in the house of Professor Kypke, in the Neustadt, where he had a spacious lecture hall. This, as well as the stairway and the entrance hall, was filled with a nearly unbelievable number of students. This seemed to make Kant quite embarrassed. Unused to this situation, he nearly lost his composure, speaking even more softly than usual and often correcting himself. But this just increased our admiration of the man whom we presumed to have the most wide-ranging learnedness and who seemed to us merely modest, rather than afraid. Things were already quite different by the next lecture. His delivery was, just as in the lectures that followed, not only thorough, but also liberal-minded and pleasant. The textbook upon which he more or less based his lectures was never followed closely, and only such that he arranged his own teaching according to the ordering of the author. The fullness of his learning often led him into digressions, that were still always quite interesting. When he noticed that he had strayed too far, he would quickly cut himself off with an “and so forth” or “and so on,” and return again to the main subject. He often brought a special, hand-written notebook, besides his textbook, whose margins were filled with notes.
Admittedly it was necessary to pay close attention to his lectures. The gift that many teachers have to make the concepts and material completely clear for everyone, to make themselves understood, even by students who would skip class or be distracted, by repeating himself using different expressions, and essentially to force these students to understand, was clearly not Kant’s. Everything must be carefully noted, as is only reasonable.
He was not keen on taking notes. It bothered him when he noticed that more important material was being overlooked, while the less important was being noted down; also other things bothered him, e.g., a striking manner of dress, and that sort of thing. He would repeat unceasingly to his students: “You will learn not philosophy from me, but philosophizing; not thoughts merely to repeat, but rather thinking.” He deeply disliked all blind adherence. Seldom did teachers warn students from this as often and as earnestly as did Kant. Nevertheless the blind adherent had his opinions without examining these; perhaps had more than others; it is certain that he didn’t want to have them. To think for oneself — to inquire for oneself — to stand on one’s own feet — were expressions that constantly came forth.
Doubt from students and requests for a closer explanation, he accepted in his early years most agreeably. Even his lectures were a free discussion spiced with and good humor. Often citations and references to writings that he had just read; occasional anecdotes which, however, always suited the material. I never heard in his lectures any sexually suggestive remarks, by which many other teachers, however, would use to enliven their lectures, but which drives the good, well-raised boys from their lecture halls. His later students have also testified to this. One of these, now a man, always thought well of Kant to the very end, praised Kant to me recently that Kant in his lectures was always so careful in his interaction with the students regarding anything that could have been harmful to them. E.g., in his physical geography, he obviously must mention aqua tofana, but he did not say how to make it, and later remarked at dinner: “One of them might have been able to make it.” On the contrary we often heard fatherly admonitions to good moral sense and behavior, although he otherwise promoted with the youth a proper freedom and many sorts of pleasure. As is known from his anthropology, he didn’t want to employ hothouse breeding with youth. Trust in his knowledge and the desire to take classes from him went so far during his years as a lecturer that one believed he was able to teach anything that could be considered part of the philosophy faculty. So some students, mainly from Curland, wanted him to offer a course on aesthetics and lessons on German eloquence. He surely would have done a fine job lecturing, but it was simply too far afield for him; he assigned it to me and under his direction I gave lessons on this during the winters of 1759 and 1760 to a circle of 15-18 young people, some of whom are still living. Forty years and more he was a thoroughly honored teacher in our province, whose lecture room was never empty. Many indeed came merely to be able to say that they had taken his class. [Borowski 1912, 85-87; repr. Malter 1990, 26-28]
A student had promised to pay off the honorarium this morning for a course of lectures he had heard. How often and how gladly he would waive this, either wholly in part, everyone knows! But his student had made a certain promise to come. Kant explained that he didn’t need the money all that much. But every quarter-hour he would come back to it, and remark that the young man still hadn’t arrived! He showed up a few days later. He reproached him so earnestly, and when the student requested a position as opponent at the next Disputation, Kant refused, with the bitter remark to him: “You would likely not keep your word, not show up for the Disputation — and then ruin everything!” These earnest, yet otherwise softly uttered words, kept this young man — I have known him for many years since — from any mistake of this sort again. [Borowski 1912, 59-60; repr. Malter 1990, 36]
Ein Studierender hatte ihm auf diesen Vormittag die Abtragung des Honorars für gehörte Vorlesungen zugesagt. Wie oft und wie gerne er dieses vielen ganz oder teilweise erließ, wissen alle! Dieser aber hatte ein bestimmtes Versprechen gegeben. K. äußerte, daß er des Geldes gar nicht so sehr bedürfe. Alein nach jeder Viertelstunde kam er darauf zurück, daß der junge Mann sich doch — nicht einfinde! Nach ein paar Tagen erschien er. K. hielts' ihm so ernstlich vor und nahm ihn, da er sich zu seiner Opponentenstelle bei einer nächstens zu haltenden Disputation erbot, nicht dazu an mit der bitteren Bemerkung: 'Sie möchten doch,' sagte er zu ihm, 'nicht Wort halten, sich nicht zum Disputationsakt einfinden und — dann ales verderben!' Dieses ernste, obwohl sonst sanft ausgesprochene Wort schützte nachher diesen jungen Mann — ich kannte ihn noch viele Jarhre hindurch — vor jedem Fehler dieser Art.
Since Kant would have been only a lecturer when this happened (Prof. Funck, who died in 1764, was also present with Borowski), then why would the student be asking Kant for permission to participate in a disputation, unless it was Kant’s own? Of Kant’s three public disputations, only his 1756 (April 10) disputation is a possible candidate (his pro receptione disputation of 1755 took place before he was teaching, and his pro loco disputation of 1770 would have been too late — unless, of course, the student was simply asking for a position on Kant’s next disputation, without there being one already in the works.
He became a teacher at our university. Equipped with all the knowledge necessary for the discipline in which he was to lecture, he appeared in his lecture hall with the most unassuming modesty — always reminding us that he would not teach philosophy, but rather how to philosophize, etc. — demonstrated thoroughness in his lectures, and yet accompanied this thoroughness with charm and interesting descriptions. Never, never, did he take refuge in that sorry aid of satire, or in taking shots at other teachers. Never — as I have seen with my own eyes in many settings and over many years — did he head down some lower path in order to win popularity. He lectured on logic, metaphysics, ethics, etc., without tying himself to the textbook, and often without any notebook, entirely in the manner described in his Program of 1765 — and then he added to this his physical geography and anthropology. The former lectures were for those interested in an educated knowledge; the latter for those who wanted to educate their head and heart, as well as to make more attractive and entertaining their social intercourse and conversations with others. Of course, a lively attentiveness was always required. Without this his lectures couldn’t be understood, and one would get lost. For his part, the lectures were held with punctuality and conscientious fidelity, allowing only those vacations that were legally allowed. Could this have any other consequence than that, from 1755 until today, a great many of students — and especially those most noble and most hungry for knowledge — have been streaming to him? And to whom he was always so glad to be of help, willingly helping to resolve their various doubts by discussing whatever seemed difficult to them, etc., whether on walks or at any other opportunity outside those hours in the classroom.
The young theologians especially learn from him how to avoid that false, windy, boastful, and fruitless enlightenment (which many call the disposition to distance oneself from the Bible and the system based on it), not merely to repeat mechanically the system, but rather to think through everything, even the theological truths. They convince themselves from his lectures that his morality does not contradict the Christian moral theory — even if there is not a point-by-point harmony between them Kantian virtue theory agrees completely with the Christian, although the motives for the latter are taken from elsewhere, as well as being more popular and comprehensible for everyone. Students from other faculties also came to him in droves, and all guided by him to an understanding of oneself and of humans in general, to a striving for truth and morality. Add also to this his many effective moral examples. Thus for the last forty years, men have been employed in all stations and offices who use his teachings and his wise hints in their circles of influence — and to a large extent have Kant to thank for their useful activity and the good results. In later years, older men would visit his lecture hall, if their official duties allowed them, and gladly expand their store of accumulated knowledge. It is indisputable: Kant has done unspeakably much for the well-being of our students — and to him remains their general trust and love. [Borowski 1912, 40-42; repr. Malter 1990, 28-29]
Friedrich Theodor Rink (1770-1811)[bio] was a close associate of Kant in his later years, and author of an 1805 biography, from which comes the following:
His teaching skills, as well as his many-sided knowledge that, because of its relevance to the human condition, provided his talents for social conversation such a wide playing field; and this, along with the fame from his earlier writings, especially the Allgemeine Naturgeschichte des Himmels appearing in 1755,[1] quickly made his lecture hall into one of the most frequented, even though he was just a private lecturer, and also led many students to him outside the lecture hall, and won for him many respectable friends and admirers. Among the latter belonged — not to mention many others — the Generals von Meyer[2] and von Lossow,[1] and the Graf von Keyserling and his wife. Just as he was often the companion of the latter family, he was also nearly a daily dinner guest of General von Meyer — a clear-thinking man who was especially glad to see the officers of his regiment seeking to educate themselves by way of Kant’s private instructions in mathematics.
Yet all of that did not wholly lift the weight of his financial burden, and it was entirely justified that he once returned the remainder of an honorarium to a poor student who had wanted to pay him, after — as Kant himself said — he used some to finish paying his six-month rent and kept just a little extra for himself. I heard this anecdote from the reliable mouth of that former student, who is now a worthy man in a respectable office. But all the same, Kant later would often assure us that he had always taken care that creditors were never able to come knocking at his door with their unpleasant surprise. [Rink 1805, 31-33; repr. Malter, 1990, 30-31]
Seine Lehrergeschicklichkeiten, wie seine mannigfaltigen Kenntisse, die, weil sie in nächste Bezeihung auf den Menschen standen, seinem Talente für die gesellschaftliche Unterhaltung einen um so größern Spielraum gaben, verbunden mit dem Ruhme, den ihm seine frühern Schriften schon, und nahmentlich die im Jahre 1755 erschienene Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels erwarben, machten nicht nur seinen Hörsaal, obwohl er bloßer Privatdocent war, in Kurzem zu einem der besuchtesten, sondern führten ihm auch außer demselben mehrere Schüler zu, und erwarben ihm viele und angesehene Freunde und Gönner. Zu den leztern gehörten, vieler Anderer nicht zu gedenken, die Generale von Meyer und von Lossow, und der Graf von Keyserling nebst seiner Gemahlin; Wie er öfter der Gesellschafter dieser zuletz genannten Familie war, so war er fast der tägliche Tischgenosse auch des Generals von Meyer, eines helldenkenden Mannes, der es gerne sah, wenn die Officiere seines Regiments sich durch Kant's Privatunterricht, nahmentlich in der Mathematik, auszubilden suchten.
Das Alles indessen hob doch nicht ganz den Druck seiner häuslichen Lage, und es hat seine völlige Richtigkeit, daß er einst einem armen Studirenden, als dieser ihm das Honorarium abtrug, den ganzen Rest desselben weider zurückgab, nachdem er, wie er selbst gesagt, zu völliger Tilgung seiner halbjährigen Miethe, nur etwas davon an sich behalten hatte. Diese Anecdote habe ich aus dem glaubwürdigen Munde jenes damahligen Studirenden, der itzt als würdiger Mann in einem angesehenen Amte steht. Aber eben so gewiß ist es auch, daß Kant späterhin oft versicherte, er habe immer dafür gesorgt, daß er nie ein Gläubiger an seine Thüre habe klopfen, und ihn auf eine unangeneme Weise überraschen dürfen.
[1] Actually, this early publication brought little fame to Kant at the time, since the publisher went bankrupt shortly after printing, and all the copies were impounded [Kuehn 2001, 98-99].
[2] Karl Friedrich von Meyer (1708-1775), the commander of a regiment of dragoons; cf. Kuehn [2001, 127-28].
[3] Daniel Friedrich von Lossow (1722-1783), the general of the hussar regiment in Könïgsberg. Kant was often the guest at Lossow's estate near Goldapp, about 75 km. east of Königsberg; cf. Kuehn [2001, 128].
Theodor Gottlieb Hippel [index] [top]
I studied mathematics and philosophy with extraordinary eagerness, and since I unfortunately lacked the opportunity to go any further with Latin, and even less with Greek, I had to make do with dead teachers, instead of the living with whom I had begun. Kant had begun his lecturing at that time, but I didn't visit his school before I had already attended the entire so-called "philosophical course" with Buck. [Hippel 1801, 91; repr. Malter 1990, 41]
Ich studierte Mathematik und Philosophie mit außerordentlichem Eifer, und da ich leider weder im Lateinischen, noch weniger im Griechischen weiter zu kommen Gelegenheit fand, so mußt' ich mich anstatt der lebendigen Lehrer, nach denen ich ausgegangen war, mit todten behelfen. Kant fing damals erst zu lesen an, und ich besuchte seine Schule nicht eher, als bis ich den ganzen sogenannten philosophischen Cursus bei Buck gehört hatte.
Johann Christoph Mortzfeld [index] [top]
The best of his later lectures were metaphysics, logic, physical geography, rational theology, anthropology, physics, etc.
The opinion had spread even among his students that his lectures were hard to comprehend, for which reason most began with his course on physical geography, or with the moral philosophy.
It no doubt must have hard to understand him completely before becoming more familiar with his delivery — especially in the later years, where occasionally he was hard to follow. In his early years, nevertheless, he presented his lectures as harmonious wholes, and insured each time that his material was well-prepared. The infirmities of old age hindered his efforts, right down to the last moments of his life, of which he sometimes bitterly complained.
No one need extol his achievements in the learned world; his works speak for themselves.
The direction which his instruction gave to his students’ thought will be noticeable for a long time; and even if the obscurities prevail in the lecture notebooks that are circulating, as well as in his writings, still Mr. Jäsche and Rink will show for posterity by way of his Nachlaß that changing the fashion of philosophical systems is not so easy as changing one’s hairstyle. [Mortzfeld 1802, 58-60; repr. Malter 1990, 32-33]
Seine vorzüglicheren späterhin vorgetragenen Vorlesungen, waren Metaphyisik, Logik, physische Geographie, Rational-Theologie, Anthropologie, Physik u.s.w.
Selbst unter seinen Schülern hatte sich die Meinung verbreitet, daß seine Vorlesungen schwer zu fassen wären, weswegen die mehresten mit den Collegien der physischen Geographie, oder mit der philosophischen Moral anzufangen pflegten.
Ehe der Schüler seinen Vortrag gewohnt wurde, möchte es manchem freilich schwer geworden seyn, ihn ganz zu fassen; vorzüglich in den spätern Jahren, wo er zuweilen schwer zu folgen war. Jedoch trug er in seinen frühern Jahren, seine Vorlesungen jederzeit im harmonischen Ganzen vor, und versicherte jederzeit auf das vorzutragende sich wohl vorbereitet zu haben. Die Beschwerlichkeiten seines Alters verhinderten ihm seine Bemühungen bis zu dem lezten Augenblikke seines Lebens fortzusezzen, worüber er sich auch an einem Orte bitter beklagt.
Was er der gelehrten Welt geleistet, dies bedarf keiner Anpreisung, seine Werke sprechen für ihn selbst.
Die Richtung, welche er dem Denken seiner Schüler durch seinen Unterricht gab, wird lange noch bemerkbar bleiben, und wenn noch Dunkelheiten in den circulirenden Compendien seiner Vorlesungen sowohl, als in seinen Schriften obwalten sollten, so werden durch seinen Nachlaß die Herren Jäsche und Rink versprochener Maaßen der Nachwelt die günstige Aussicht eröfnen, daß der Moden-Wechsel philosophischer Systeme nicht so leicht, als eine Tour falscher haare zu verändern seyn möchte.
1757?
Anonymous (Wasianski?) [index] [top]
The following comes from an anonymous piece entitled “Kant in seiner letzten Lebenszeit” and was dated “Königsberg, den 15. Februar 1804.” It appeared in the Freimüthigen, edited by A. von Kotzebue and G. Merkel (Berlin, March 1, 1804, #43, p. 171). Reicke believed that the source was Wasianski, but the parallels in Rink’s 1805 biography are quite striking (compare the passages reprinted at Malter [1990, 31 and 42]).
Already as a Magister he was keeping himself out of dire poverty by teaching several Privatissima, even on fortification to young officers. He would always say that he always had money, and never feared creditors knocking on his door to collect. At the same time, things must have been tight early on. [...] He was lecturing on Baumeister’s metaphysics when Baumgarten’s appeared,[1] and over which he would rather have lectured. He thought it necessary first to ask his auditors; and on the paper he circulated, one of his auditors (now an estimable man in public office) quite singularly indicated his preference for Baumgarten. The teacher did not know this auditor personally, and so asked him to introduce himself in the next hour. This he did, and Kant assured him that he would gladly tutor him privately with any difficult parts. [Qtd. in Arnoldt 1908-9, v.274-75; repr. Malter 1990, 41-42]
Schon als Magister arbeitete er sich über die Nothdurft hinaus, durch mehrere Privatissima, die er las, selbst jungen Officieren, über die Fortifikation. Er pflegte zu erzählen, daß er schon damals immer bei Gelde und nie in Furcht gewesen, daß man ihn mahnen komme, wenn an seine Thür geklopft worden. Gleichwohl muß er es ganz im Anfange doch knapp gehabt haben. Um so mehr verdient ein Zug aus jener Zeit von ihm, aufbehalten zu werden. Er las über Baumeisters Metaphysik, als eben die Baumgartensche erschien, über die er lieber gelesen hätte. Indessen fand er nöthig, erst sein Auditorium darüber zu befragen. Auf dem Zettel, den er deshalb cirkuliren ließ, hatte sich Einer von seinen damaligen Zuhörern (jetzt ein würdiger Mann in einem öffentlichen Amte,) ganz besonders angelegentlich für Baumgarten erklärt. Der Lehrer kannte diesen Zuhörer persönlich nicht, bat diesen daher in der nuachsten Stunde, sich ihm zu erkennen zu geben. Der that dies, und Kant versicherte ihn, daß er bei Zweifeln und Bedenklichkeiten ihn gerne noch privatim belehren würde.
[1] This would perhaps have been in 1757, when the 4th edition of Baumgarten’s Metaphysics appeared.
Letter: Hamann's brother to Lindner (16 March 1757) [index] [top]
Johann Gotthelf Lindner (1729-1776) was a close friend of Kant since their days as university students. The “clamorous Watson” is Matthias Friedrich Watson [bio].
Magister Kant lives happy and content. He quietly recruits those attending the lectures of the clamorous Watson, and weakens with industry and true learning the apparent acclaim of this youth.
Herr Magister Kant lebt glücklich und zufriedne, in der Stille wribt er die Zuhörer des marktschreierischen Watson und schwächt durch seinen Fleiß und echte Gelehrsamkeit den scheinenden Beifall dieses Jünglings. [qtd. in Vorländer 1924, i.86]
Letter: Kant to Lindner (28 October 1759) [index] [top]
One of our first glimpses into Kant’s teachings, and one of the very few that Kant himself provides, comes from a letter to Johann Gotthelf Lindner (October 28, 1759), a slightly younger friend from student days currently serving as the rector of Riga’s Cathedral School:
I am very pleased to hear from everyone that you have managed to display your talents in a place where people are capable of appreciating them and that you have succeeded in getting away from the sick wooing of approval and the tasteless arts of ingratiation displayed by pretentious little Magisters around here [...]. For my part I sit daily at the anvil of my lectern and guide the heavy hammer of repetitious lectures, constantly beating out the same rhythm. Now and then I am stirred by some nobler inclination, a desire to extend myself beyond this narrow sphere; but the blustering voice of Need immediately attacks me and, always truthful in its threats, promptly drives me back to hard work. [Ak. 10: 18-19; repr. in Malter 1990, 50]
Ich bin recht sehr erfreut von jedermann zu erfahren daß Ew: Hochedelgeb. gewußt haben ihre Verdienste auf einem Schauplatze wo man vermögend ist sie zu schätzen u. zu belohnen zu zeigen und daß es Ihnen gelungen ist sich über die elende Buhlereyen um den Beyfall und die abgeschmackte Einschmeichelungskünste hinweg zu sehen welche hier großthuerische kleine Meister die höchstens nur schaden können denen auferlegen welche gerne ihre Belohnung verdienen und nicht erschleichen möchten. Ich meines theils sitze täglich vor dem Ambos meines Lehrpults und führe den schweeren Hammer sich selbst ähnlicher Vorlesungen in einerley tacte fort. Bisweilen reitzt mich irgendwo eine Neigung edlerer Art mich über diese enge Sphäre etwas auszudehnen allein der Mangel mit ungestühmer Stimme so gleich gegenwärtig mich anzufallen und immer warhaftig in seinen Drohungen treibt mich ohne Verzug zur schweren Arbeit zurück.
Stephan Wannowski (1749-1812) [bio] was a Königsberg theologian; his remarks were among those collected by S. G. Wald in 1804 while preparing for a memorial talk on Kant, and since printed in Reicke [1860, 40-41].
He had instructed many Russian officers privately in mathematics during the seven years war.
He was especially attentive to fortification, and military archtecture and pyrotechnics in general. He tried a few times to explain to me what the globe or even the Globes de Compression was, but unfortunately found in me in such matters an unteachable student.
Apart from these courses, Kant often taught moral philosophy, as well as natural or rational theology. Whether he ever gave public lectures on mathemetics is unknown to me, likewise with whether or not he immediately exchanged his professorship with Buck or only after a time.[1]
With respect to textbooks. Several times he used Baumgarten’s textbook, then also Meyer’s — whether he might have first used Knutzen’s logic text, I don't know.[2] In general he proceeded — as is known — always along his own trains of thought, and used the textbooks only formally, and never as a canon.
Er hat viele rußische Officiere in der Mathematik — während des siebenjährigen Krieges privatim unterrichtet.
Auf Fortification und überhaupt Archtectura militaris und Pyrotechnie war er sehr aufmerksam. Er hat mir ein paar mal zu erklären versucht, was der globe oder wohl die Globes de Compression wären, aber leider in diesem Fach und Fall einen ungelehrigen Schüler an mir gefunden.
Außer den benannten Collegien hat Kant noch öfters die Moralphilosophie, auch natürliche oder Vernunfttheologie gelesen. Ob er als Magister über mathematische Wissenschaften öffentliche Vorlesungen gehalten, ist mir unbekannt, und eben so wenig, ob er so gleich oder nach einiger Zeit seine Professur mit dem seeligen Buck tauschte.
In Ansehung der Materien und Compendien. Er las mehrentheils über die Baumgartschen Compendia, dann auch über Meyersche — ob er etwa anfänglich Knutzen's Logik mag zum Grunde gelegt haben, ist mir unbekannt. — Ueberhaupt ging er — wie bekannt — stets seinen eigenen Gedankengang, und die zum Grunde gelegten Compendia brauchte er nur so pro forma und nicht als Canon.
[1] These two points are connected, of course, since Kant would offer public lectures in mathematics only if he was a professor of mathematics (which, as we know, he never was). The fortification, military architecture, and pyrotechnics were subjects covered in the Wolff mathematics text that Kant used (see).
[2] The relevant texts are: (1) Alexander Baumgarten, Metaphysica (used for his lectures on metaphysics, anthropology, and natural theology, (2) Georg Friedrich Meier, Auszug aus der Vernunftlehre (used for his logic lectures), and (3) Martin Knutzen, Elementa philosophiae rationalis seu logicae (for which there is no evidence that Kant ever used it). See Textbooks.
1760s
1762-64 — Herder's Years in Kant's Classroom
Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803), Letters on the Advancement of Humanity (#79) [index] [top]
I had the good fortune to know a philosopher who was also my teacher. He was in his best years, and possessed the cheerful vivacity of youth which, I believe, has accompanied him even into old age. His open, thoughtful brow was the seat of undisturbed cheerfulness and joy; language rich in thought flowed from his lips; jokes, wit, and good humor were at his command; and his instructive lectures were the greatest of entertainment. In the same spirit with which he investigated Leibniz, Wolf, Baumgarten, Crusius, and Hume, and traced the laws of Newton, Kepler, and the physicists generally, he also examined the writings then appearing by Rousseau, namely, his Emile and his Heloise. He appreciated every physical discovery that came to his notice, and always returned to an impartial knowledge of nature and the moral worth of man. The well-spring of his lectures was the history of men, of nations, and of nature, as well as natural science, mathematics, and his own experience. He was indifferent to nothing worth knowing. No cabal, no sect, no prejudice, no ambition for fame, had the least influence over him compared with the development and clarification of the truth. He encouraged and pleasantly compelled his hearers to think for themselves; despotism was foreign to his mind. This man, whom I mention with the greatest thankfulness and esteem, is Immanuel Kant; his picture stands pleasantly before me. [Irmscher 1991, 424-25; repr. in Malter 1990, 57]
J. G. Herder, Preface to Kalligone (1800) [index] [top]
Near the end of his life, in the latter years of a bitter falling out with Kant, Herder offers one more glimpse of his student days:
For more than thirty years I’ve known a youth [viz., Herder himself] who heard all of the lectures, some more than once, of the founder of the critical philosophy himself — and indeed in his early, flourishing years. The youth marveled over the teacher’s dialectical wit, his political as well as scientific acumen, his eloquence, his intelligent memory; he was never at a loss for words; his lectures were meaningful conversations with himself. But the youth soon noticed that, when he set aside the gracefulness of the presentation, he would become wrapped in one of its dialectical webs of words, within which he himself was no longer able to think. He therefore set himself the strict task, after each hour of careful listening, of changing it all into his own words, making no use of pet words or phrases of his teacher, and even diligently to avoid this. [Irmscher 1998, 651-52; repr. in Malter 1990, 59-60]
J. G. Herder, Journal of my Travels in the Year 1769 [index] [top]
We also find in Herder’s travel journal from 1769, among plans for a school modeled after Rousseau’s Emile,[1] fond recollections of Kant’s metaphysics lectures, or at least of Kant’s teaching. His future school, Herder wrote, would involve not mere speculation, but rather “the result of all the empirical sciences, without which it would admittedly be just idle speculation.” It will include psychology (“a rich physics of the soul”), cosmology (“the crown of Newtonian physics”), theology (“the crown of cosmology”), and finally ontology (“the most cultivated science of them all”):
I readily admit that we do not yet have a philosophy following this method, such that would really teach students, nor especially ontology — that most excellent teacher of great prospects has become a mere web of jargon! Oh, what might be accomplished with a metaphysics in this spirit, to expand its prospects from one concept to another in the spirit of Bacon, what would that be for a work! And a lively instruction in the spirit of Kant, what for heavenly hours! [From Herder’s Journal of my Travels in the Year 1769, in Wisbert 1997, 49]
[1] Regarding Rousseau, the daily schedule that Herder entered into his brown notebook [Herder NL, XXVI.5] shows him beginning and ending each day reading an hour from Rousseau. And see Herder’s letter to Scheffner (4 October 1766 – new calendar): “I have been, as it were, initiated by Kant into Rousseau’s and Hume’s writings, both of whom I read daily” [Arnold/Dobbek, 1977-96, i.64; repr. in Malter 1990, 70]
Karl Gottlieb Bock (1746-1829) [bio] matriculated at Königsberg on 27 September 1762, a month after Herder, and forty-three years later offered these memories of their student days together:
Kant offered to let [Herder] hear, free of charge, all his lectures on logic, metaphysics, moral philosophy, mathematics, and physical geography. It was here, in the years 1763 and 1764, that he made his acquaintance. We heard Kant’s lectures together and he still wrote to me about this in a letter of August 11, 1788, on his way to Italy from Nürnberg: ‘I can still see you before me, real as life, sitting at the table at which I also sat. Where has the time gone?’
With strained attentiveness he took in every idea, every word of the great philosopher, and at home ordered his thoughts and expression. He often shared these notes with me and we would discuss them in an isolated summerhouse in a seldom-visited public garden by the Alt-Roßgarten church. [Herder 1846, 133-34; repr. in Malter 1990, 63; Herder’s 1788 letter to Bock is printed in Arnold/Dobbek 1977-96, vi.20-22]
Bock goes on to recall an especially lively lecture where Kant was quoting from his favorite poets (Pope and Haller) to illuminate certain points on the nature of time and eternity. Herder was so moved by this that he returned to his room, set Kant’s lecture down to verse, and then handed this to Kant the following morning before the lecture began. Kant was clearly impressed by Herder’s poem, since he then read it aloud — “with fiery praise” — to the class.[1] The poem is lost, but if Bock is correct that it “sprang out of Kant’s lecture on time and space like Minerva from Jupiter’s head,”[2] then Herder presumably found poetic inspiration sitting in Kant’s metaphysics lectures.
[1] See Emil Herder’s gloss on Bock’s story [1846, 135-36], and also Malter’s notes to the selection [1990, 64], where he quotes Herder’s letter to Scheffner (31 October 1767; Arnold/Dobbek, i.94) indicating that Herder no longer has the poem, and that he now regards it as “a belch from a stomach overloaded with Rousseau’s writings.” Dobbek [1961, 220n166] believes Bock misremembered the poem’s topic, and that it was actually the first part of Herder’s “Der Mensch.”
[2] In Bock’s letter to Herder, dated 9 April 1788, and now lost. The relevant passage is quoted in Herder [1846, 113-14].
Jakob Friedrich Wilpert (1741-1812) was a fellow-student of Herder's, and later a two-time mayor of Riga. He recalled attending with Herder ...
... Kant’s lectures on metaphysics, moral philosophy, and physical geography. We sat at a table; at that time he was shy and quiet; his gait was stooped and quick — his eyes often sick-looking; from his appearances, one could see that he was poor; but his spirit was, even then, rich — and when he discussed the lectures of his teachers, it was so thorough and firm, that he commanded respect and affection from his colleagues. We all heard dogmatics together from Dr. Lilienthal; otherwise I didn’t have any closer relations with him. [Herder 1846, 137; repr. in Malter 1990, 65]
Caroline Herder, Erinnerungen aus dem Leben Joh. Gottfried von Herder [index] [top]
Caroline Herder née Flachsland (1750-1809) was married to Johann Gottfried Herder for thirty years — from 1773 until his death in 1803.
Herder himself often recounted how he occasionally shared his ideas on the lectures with Kant, and he held so much of Kant’s respect and trust that Kant often shared his work with him in manuscript form, so as to hear his opinion. He most preferred hearing Kant talk about astronomy, physical geography, and in general about the great laws of nature: here his presentation was splendid. For his metaphysics lectures he had much less taste — even though he felt he understood these better than his later ideas, and even though Kant at that time presented his material in all his youthful rhetoric and in a much clearer language than the later scholastic jargon. After many of these metaphysical lectures he would hurry outside with some poet or Rousseau, or some such author, so as to free himself of the impressions that agreed so little with his mind. For Kant himself, where he really instructed his soul, Herder gave oral and written testimony of the greatest respect; but he never hid his own way of thinking and feeling; he never wanted to nor could be his blind pupil and imitator. Herder could never fully satisfy Kant’s happy gift of graceful yet acute conversation, and a sympathy between these two minds never happened. Much more intimate and of a wholly different sort was Herder’s relation with his friend Johann Georg Hamann. [...] [This text was collected and described by J. G. Herder’s widow (1830, pp. 68-69; repr. in Malter 1990, 66).]
Herder selbst erzählte oft, er habe Kant zuweilen seine Ideen über seine Vorlesungen mitgetheilt, und so sehr seine Achtung und Vertrauen besessen, daß Kant ihm mehrere seiner Arbeiten in Manuskript, um seine Meinung darüber zu hören, mitgetheilt habe. Er habe Kant am liebsten reden gehört über Astronomie, physische Geographie, überhaupt über die großen Gesetze der Natur; da sey sein Vortrag vortrefflich gewesen; an seiner Metaphysik hingegen, die er richtiger gefaßt zu haben glaube als seine spätere Schule, und obwohl Kant sie damals noch in aller seiner Jugendberedsamkeit und in einer viel hellern Sprache als der spätern scholastischen Kunstsprache vortrug, weniger Geschmack gefunden, und nach mancher metaphysischen Vorlesung sey er mit einem Dichter oder mit Rousseau oder einem ähnlichen Schriftsteller in's Freye geeilt, um jener Eindrücke wieder los zu werden, die seinem Gemüth so wenig zusagten. Für Kant selbst, wo er seinen Geist wirklich unterrichtete, erhob und befriedigte, bezeugte Herder mündlich und schriftlich die größte Hochachtung, verbarg ihm aber seine eigene Art zu denken und zu empfinden niemals; sein blinder Schüler und Nachbeter konnte und wollte er niemals werden. Kants glückliche Gabe schön und scharfsinnig zu reden, konnte Herdern nicht ganz befriedigen, und eine Sympathie beider Gemüther fand niemals statt.
Christian Friedrich Jensch (d. 1802) was a regular lunch guest of Kant's who held office in Königsberg as a Kriminalrat, as well as co-authoring with Hippel a book on the emancipation of women. He matriculated at the university in 1763, and so would have attended Kant's classes alongside Herder.
How interesting Kant was in his lectures. He would enter the room in a sort of enthusiasm, saying: we left off here or there. He had memorized the main ideas so deeply and vividly that the entire hour was lived in these alone; often he took little notice of the textbook over which he was lecturing.
He lectured on Baumgarten. His copy was covered with notes all over. Hume, Leibniz, Montaigne, and the English novels of Fielding and Richardson; Baumgarten and Wolff are mentioned by Kant as the works from which he learned the most. He thought quite highly of Tom Jones. [Abegg 1976, 251-52; repr. Malter 1990, 73]
Jensch erzählte mir beim Weggehen, wie interessant Kant in seinen Vorlesungen gewesen sey. Wie in einer Begeisterung sey er aufgetreten, habe gesagt: da oder da sind wir stehen geblieben. Er habe sich die Hauptideen so tief und lebendig eingeprägt, daß er nun nach denselben und in denselben die ganze Stunde lebte, und oft wenig Rücksicht auf das Compend. nahm, worüber er las.
Er las über Baumgarten. Sein Exameplar ist aber von oben [252] bis unten u. überall beschrieben. Hume, Leibniz, Montaigne und die englischen Romane von Fielding u. Richardson, Baumgarten und Wolff nennt Kant als die Schriften, aus welchen er am meisten gelernt habe. Den Tom Jones schätzte er sehr hoch.
WS 1763/64
The two following accounts concern Kant’s privatissima course(s) on physical geography and mathematics given for General Meyer. Hamann’s letter suggests that Kant gave these lectures at the garrison, although Hagen’s account suggests they occurred in Meyer’s own home:
Letter: Hamann to Lindner (Feb. 1, 1764) [index] [top]
[Kant] is now giving a course for Gen. Meyer and his officers that brings him much honor, since almost every day he eats and is picked-up with a coach to take him to his lectures on mathematics and physical geography. Torn away by such a mix of social distractions, he has a pile of writings in his head, Morality, an essay on a new metaphysics, a selection from his physical geography, and a pile of smaller ideas, from which I also hope to profit. [Hamann, Briefwechsel, ii.234; repr. Malter 1990, 74-75]
[Ernst] August Hagen (1797-1880) [index] [top]
General Meyer, chief of a Dragoons regiment in Königsberg and also governor, was a quite cultivated man. Kant, who held a course on mathematics and physical geography in his house in 1764 for a number of officers, would always be festively picked-up by coach for that purpose. Quite often he ate with him since, being unmarried, he was glad to have company during the noon meal. [Repr. Malter 1990, 75-76]
WS 1764/65
Report: von Braxein to the Ministry in Berlin (19 October 1764) [index] [top]
Fabian Abraham von Braxein (1722-1798) was the Budget Minister in Königsberg who would have been the local government official overseeing university affairs. On October 5th he had been asked by Berlin to see if Kant would accept the professorship of poetry (vacated since the death of J. G. Bock in 1762). Kant declined the offer, but in his report back to Berlin, Braxein wrote that:
Magister Kant teaches with great effectiveness to general acclaim.
1766-70
Letter: Herz to Kant [index] [top]
Marcus Naphtali Herz (1747-1803)[bio], a nineteen year old Jew from Berlin, arrived at Königsberg for four years of study at the university, matriculating on 21 April 1766. He returned to Berlin on September 1st or 2nd, 1770, having recently had the honor of serving as the respondent at Kant’s pro loco disputation (his “inaugural defense”). In an effusive letter to Kant sent a week later (11 September 1770), Herz wrote:
It is you alone I must thank for my change of fortune, and to you alone am I indebted for what I am; without you I would still be like so many of my kinsmen, pursuing a life chained to the wagon of prejudices, a life no better than that of any animal. I would have a soul without powers, an understanding without efficacy, in short, without you I would be that which I was four years ago, in other words, I would be nothing.
Herz then indicated his indebtedness to Kant as a professor of the sciences:
Certainly the role that I now play is a very small one, if I consider the substance of what I know or compare it to what many others know; yet it is an infinitely elevated role compared to the one I played only a few years ago. Let the ignorant always seek to console themselves by claiming that with all our science we have not progressed beyond them; and let hypochondriacal savants complain that our knowledge only increases our misery. I scorn the former and pity the latter; I shall never cease to regard the day that I dedicated myself to the sciences as the happiest, and the day that you became my teacher as the first day of my life.
At the end of his long letter, Herz expresses concern with Kant’s health, which he connects with Kant’s lecturing activity:
It troubles me that you, dearest teacher, are not feeling well. Is it really impossible for you to reduce the burden of your lectures? If you spent half the afternoon reading or if you just lectured less strenuously? For it is only this and not your sitting that seems to be to be the cause of your weakness. After all there are teachers in Königsberg who sit from morning till evening and move their mouths, without ever having to complain about their physical condition. [Ak. 10:99-102; Zweig 1990, 110-1]
Most of the teachers at this university have their auditoriums in this part of the city: and since I had the opportunity to speak with the pleasant and brilliant Professor Kant at various social gatherings, I occasionally visited the lectures of this scholar, and I wondered that a man who could be so brilliant a socialite outside the lecture hall could within it be the most serious and deep thinking philosopher. [Repr. Malter 1990, 107]
Die mehresten Lehrer dieser Universität haben in diesem Theile der Stadt ihre Auditorien: und da ich den angenehmen und aufgeweckten Professor Kant in verschiedenen Gesellschaften zu sprechen Gelegenheit hatte, so besuchte ich auch etlichemale das Kollegium dieses Gelehrten, und ich habe mich gewundert, daß ein Mann, der außer seinem Hörsaale der aufgeweckteste Gesellschafter ist, in demselben hingegen den ernsthaftesten und tiefstdenkenden Philosophen macht.
Meyer doesn’t specify which part of the city, but Kant was living at Kanter’s bookshop at the time [more], so he likely has Löbenicht in mind.
Ludwig Franz Adolf Josef von Baczko (1756-1823)[bio] matriculated at the university in Königsberg on 4 April 1772. Here he reports on Kant’s metaphysics lectures.
Kant had entered his most brilliant period then. When I arrived at the Academy, he was giving public lectures. I attended this lecture and didn't understand it. What with Kant's reputation and the mistrust that I always have in my own abilities, I simply believed that I needed to study more, so I asked each of my acquaintances whether they didn't own a Metaphysics or other work of philosophical content. I soon obtained the works of Wolf, Meyer and Baumgarten, as well as many deeply miserable books that I read through with great effort. I stayed up entire nights, spent twenty and more uninterrupted hours with these books, and learned nothing. [...] I noticed that many students in Kant's classroom knew even less than me, and I began to believe that they were attending Kant's lectures just to show off; I started to tease others about it, and to declare all of philosophy as useless. Helvetius's Spirit of Man, d'Argent's Philosophy of Healthy Reason, Brucker's History of Philosophy, and some things by Grotius, Hobbes, Gassendi, and similar authors were not read by me in this period without benefit, although my readings at that time were also, in part, the seeds of a kind of enthusiasism, some of which one comes across later. [Baczko 1824, 187-89; rprt. Malter 1990, 117-18]
Kant hatte damals seine glaenzendste Periode angetreten. Er las, als ich auf die Akademie kam, die Metaphysik unentgeltlich. Ich besuchte nun diese Vorlesung und verstand sie nicht. Bei der Achtung fuer Kants Ruf und dem Misstrauen, das ich jederzeit in meine Kraefte setzte, glaubte ich selbst, mehr studiren zu muessen. Daher fragte ich jeden meiner Bekannten: ob er nicht eine Metaphysik oder ein anderes Werk philosophischen Inhalts besaesse. Bald erhielt ich die Werke von Wolf, Meyer und Baumgarten; aber auch manche hoechst erbaermliche Buecher, die ich mit grosser Anstrengung durchlas. Ich durchwachte ganze Naechte, brachte, diese miteingeschlossen, zwanzig und mehrere Stunden ununterbrochen beim Buche zu und lernte nichts. [...] Ich ansah, daß manche Zuhörer von Kant noch weniger als ich wußten. Ich fing an zu glauben, dass die Leute in Kants Vorlesungen liefen, um sich ein Ansehen zu geben; begann, manchen damit zu necken und alle Philosophie fuer unnuetz zu erklaeren. Helvetius vom Geist des Menschen, und d'Argents Philosophie der gesunden Vernunft, Bruckers Geschichte der Philosophie und einiges von Grotius, Hobbes, Gassendi und aehnlichen Schriftstellern waren doch in dieser Epoche nicht fruchtlos von mir durchgelesen worden, obgleich auch meine damalige Lectuere zum Theil Keim der Schwaermerei wurde, wovon man spaeterhin einiges finden wird.
Christian Jacob Kraus (1753-1807)[bio] matriculated at the university a year before Baczko. In the following, Baczko reports how he first met Kraus.
Several students lived at Kanter’s back then, including the (late) Professor Kraus. To these I quickly felt a warm affection, and during our academic years we were inseparable friends, although our first meeting occurred in a rather unusual way. I was so poor that I couldn’t afford to heat my room. Therefore, as soon as I arrived home I would immediately pull off my boots, put on an old overcoat, and get in bed. When I wanted to write I would lay a board, which I kept for that purpose, over the bedcovers. Now since Kant kept his auditorium especially well-heated, and since I had a course with him from 8 until 9 o’clock, and a class with Jester from 10 until 11, I would often stay the hour from 9 until 10 in Professor Kant’s room since he didn’t lecture that hour,[1] and I wouldn’t be noticed by anyone. I always brought along a book to keep me occupied during these hours. Kraus had a peculiar, somewhat striking liveliness about him, and one day before Kant had begun lecturing he noticed a book lying before me. Kraus immediately picked it up, and perhaps since he had noticed that I never made much of a display of learnedness, and thus held me to be a rather insignificant, perhaps even ignorant, person who nonetheless had brought along Segner’s Cursus mathematici, he asked in his special tone of voice: “My dear soul, what are you doing with this book?” The question irritated me, so I answered in the same tone of voice: “I sing from it at beer parties.” [“Ich singe daraus, wenn ich commercire”] He looked at me and laughed, and I laughed as well. He had opposed Professor Reusch’s dissertation De luce et coloribus with approbation,[2] so I had already thought well of him. I possessed a special ability of pronouncing Latin, and after Kant finished his lecture, and Kraus, perhaps to get to know me better, hung back, we started a conversation using Segner as the occasion. [Baczko 1824, 222-23; repr. Malter 1990, 120]
Es wohnten damals auch einige Studirende bei Kantern, hierunter der verstorbene Professor Kraus. Für diesen fühlte ich bald herzlichen Anhänglichkeit, und wir waren während unserer akademischen Jahre unzertrennliche Freunde, wenn gleich unsere erste Bekanntschaft auf eine etwas sonderbare Weise entsprang. Ich befand mich in einer so bedrückten Lage, daß ich mein Zimmer zu heizen nicht im Stande war. Daher zog ich sogleich, wenn ich nach Hause kam, die Stiefel aus und einen alten Ueberrock an, setzte mich in das Bett, and legte, wenn ich schreiben wollte, ein Brett, welches ich hiezu vorräthig hielt, auf das Deckbett. Da nun Kant sein Auditorium vorzüglich gut heizen ließ, ich bei ihm von 8 bis 9 Uhr ein Collegium, und von 10 bis 11 ein Collegium bei Jester hörte, so blieb ich oft die Stunde von 9 bis 10 in dem Hörsaale des Professor Kant, der in dieser Stunde nicht las, und wo ich daher von niemanden bemerkt wurde. Ich brachte alsdann, um mich während dieser Stunde zu beschäftigen, irgend ein Buch mit. Kraus, der eine eigenthümliche, etwas auffallende Lebhaftigkeit hatte, sah, ehe Kant noch seine Vorlesungen anfing ein Buch vor mir liegen. Er nahm es sogleich in die Hand, und da es ihm vielleicht auffiel, daß ich, der ich nie mit Kenntnissen prahlte, und den er daher für einen höchst unbedeutenden, vielleicht unwissenden Menschen hielt, Segners Cursus mathematici hier mitgebracht hatte; so fragter er mit seinem besondern Tone: Liebe Seele, was machen Sie mit diesem Buche? Die Frage verdroß mich und ich antwortete daher beinahe in dem nämlichen Tone: Ich singe daraus, wenn ich commercire. Er sah mich an und lachte; ich lachte mit. Er hatte dem Professor Reusch in seiner Dissertation De luce et coloribus mit Beifall opponirt, daher schätzte ich ihn bereits. Ich besaß im mündlichen Ausdrucke der Lateinischen Sprache eine vorzügliche Fertigkeit, und als Kant die Stunde geschlossen hatte und Kraus vielleicht um mich näher kennen zu lernen, zurückblieb, knüpften wir ein Gespräch an, wozu Segner die Veranlassung gab.
[1] This is a troubling claim, since the records suggest that Kant was in fact teaching during this 9-10 hour (anthropology in the winter, physical geography in the summer; not until 1775 did Kant begin to offer these courses on a Wednesday/Saturday schedule).
[2] This disputation took place 24 September 1772 [Stark 1994a, 93].
WS 1773/74
Letter: Kant to Herz (end of 1773) [index] [top]
Kant first lectured on anthropology during the winter semester of 1772/73, at nine in the morning on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday (the four main lecture days). He had intended to lecture on physics at this time, but not enough students signed up, so he offered anthropology instead. In the following letter to Herz [bio], he is in his second semester teaching this course, which eventually became a mainstay for him, and he taught it every winter semester until his retirement. Like his course on physical geography, which he had been teaching since his second semester at the university (SS 1756), anthropology was understood as a “popular” course, and he offered these courses in alternating semesters alongside his required (and public) lectures on metaphysics and logic.
I have read your review of Platner’s Anthropology. I would not have guessed the reviewer myself but now I am delighted to see the evident progress of his skill. This winter I am giving, for the second time, a lecture course on Anthropologie, a subject that I now intend to make into a proper academic discipline. But my plan is quite unique. I intend to use it to disclose the sources of all the [practical] sciences, the science of morality, of skill, of human intercourse, of the way to educate and govern human beings, and thus of everything that pertains to the practical. I shall seek to discuss phenomena and their laws rather than the foundations of the possibility of human thinking in general. Hence the subtle and, to my view, eternally futile inquiries as to the manner in which bodily organs are connected with thought I omit entirely. I include so many observations of ordinary life that my auditors have constant occasion to compare their ordinary experience with my remarks and thus, from beginning to end, find the lectures entertaining and never dry. In my spare time, I am trying to prepare a preliminary study for the students out of this very pleasant empirical study, an analysis of the nature of skill (prudence) and even wisdom that, along with physical geography and distinct from all other learning, can be called knowledge of the world. [Translation: Zweig 1999, 141]
Ich habe die recension der platnerschen anthropologie gelesen. Ich hätte zwar nicht von selbst auf den recensenten gerathen ietzt aber vergnügt mich der darinn hervorblickende Fortgang seiner Geschicklichkeit.Ich lese in diesem Winter zum zweyten mal ein collegium privatum der Anthropologie welches ich ietzt zu einer ordentlichen academischen disciplin zu machen gedenke. Allein mein Plan ist gantz anders. Die Absicht die ich habe ist durch dieselbe die Qvellen aller Wissenschaften die der Sitten der Geschiklichkeit des Umganges der Methode Menschen zu bilden u. zu regiren mithin alles Praktischen zu eröfnen. Da suche ich alsdenn mehr Phänomena u. ihre Gesetze als die erste Gründe der Möglichkeit der modification der menschlichen Natur überhaupt. Daher die subtile u. in meinen Augen auf ewig vergebliche Untersuchung über die Art wie die organe des Korper mit den Gedanken in Verbindung stehen ganz wegfällt. Ich bin unabläßig so bey der Beobachtung selbst im gemeinen Leben daß meine Zuhörer vom ersten Anfange bis zu Ende niemals eine trokene sondern durch den Anlaß den sie haben unaufhörlich ihre gewöhnliche Erfahrung mit meinen Bemerkungen zu vergleichen iederzeit eine unterhaltende Beschäftigung habe. Ich arbeite in Zwischenzeiten daran, aus dieser in meinen Augen sehr angenehmen Beobachtungslehre eine Vorübung der Geschiklichkeit der Klugheit und selbst der Weisheit vor die academische Iugend zu machen welche nebst der physischen geographie von aller andern Unterweisung unterschieden ist und die Kentnis der Welt heissen kan. [#79; Ak. 10:145-46; repr. Malter 1990, 126-7]
Kraus wohnte damals mit dem jungen Baron [von Schlippenbach] in einem Hause mit Kant, und das Zimmer, worin dieser seine Vorlesungen hielt, stieß an des Barons Wohnzimmer an. Als nun Morgens der Bediente seine Herrn frisirte und Kanten im Nebenzimmer dociren hörte, that er die naive Frage: "warum doch die Herren Studenten alle so weit herkämen, um Kanten zuzuhören und nicht lieber da lernted, wo der Professor gelernt habe? Dem Hören könnten sie doch unmöglich eine so große Kraft zuschreiben!" [Voigt 1819, 29; rprt. in Malter 1990, 130-31]
Kant jotted down the following self-assessment in a reflection on metaphysics (#4989) dated by Adickes at around 1776:
The method of my delivery has a disadvantageous form. It appears to be scholastic, ponderous, dry, yes, even limited and rather different from the tone of the genius. [Ak. 18:53]
Compare this to the reflection on logic (#2050), also from around 1776:
There are methods necessary only for teaching, but that in application and in life fall to the side. [Ak. 16:213]
Johann Christoph Mortzfeld, a physician in Königsberg, anonymously published a short biography of Kant’s life in 1802 in which he claimed that ...
Kant was reproached for not examining the students rigorously enough during his turns as Dean. His good naturedness would only let him sense their anxiety — it seemed adequate to him so long as they didn’t appear utterly ignorant. Similarly he did not limit the academic freedom of the students, but instead loved to give them a fair bit of freedom, which still was not to degenerate into unrestraint. He would say that trees flourish best if they are standing in the open when they are growing, and give finer fruit than when their form has been forced through some artifice or hothouse. [1802, 90-92; repr. Malter 1990, 132-33]
Man machte Kant den Vorwurf, daß wenn er in der Tour Decan war, er die jungen Leute, welche von denSchulenkamen nicht strenge genug examinirte. Seine Gutmüthigkeit ließ iihm die Aengstlichkeit dieser nur fühlen, — und es schien ihm hinlänglich zu seyn, wenn sie nicht gänzliche Vernachlässigung verriethen. Ebenmäßig beschränkte er nicht die academische Freiheit studierender Jünglinge, sondern liebte eine anständige ihnen ertheilte Freiheit, welche jedoch nie in Zügellosigkeit ausarten mußte. Er sagte, Bäume, wenn sie im Freyen stehen, und im Wachsthum begriffen sind, gedeihen besser, und tragen einst herrlichere Früchte, als wenn sie durch Künsteleien, Treibhäuser und confiscirte Formen dazu gebracht werden sollen.
If he didn’t examine very closely as Dean, it was because the whole business was distasteful to him, as such work to such a mind must be. The rectorate was for him fully lethal, with so many examples of dishonesty with which he became acquainted in that office. He most hated any traits of dishonesty and unethicalness. [Reicke 1860, 46; repr. Malter 1990, 133]
Wenn er als Decan nicht scharf examinirte, so war es, weil ihm das ganze Geschäft höchste zuwider war und einem solchen Geiste bei seinen Arbeiten zuwider sein mußte. Das Rectorat war ihm vollends fatal bei so manchen Exempeln von Unredlichkeit, die er im officio rectorali kennen lernte. Aber Züge von Unredlichkeit und Unsittlichkeit waren ihm äußerst verhaßt.
SS 1777
Moses Mendelssohn’s Visit to Königsberg (18 August 1777) [index] [top]
Karl Vorländer recounts Mendelssohn’s [bio] visit on 18 August 1777, as reported by August Lewald (1793-1871)[1] and from whose memoires the following is quoted. The story is interesting for a number of reasons, not least for the picture it offers of how students could behave in the classroom, as well as the general atmosphere confronting Jews in the university. (See also the introductory comments to the passage below from Kant’s letter to Herz, 20 Aug 1777.)
Mendelssohn, small in stature, with a large hump on his back, with clever and good-natured eyes, so that he “could soften even the rawest heart to sympathy” (Kraus), appeared in Kant’s classroom without Kant’s knowledge and a little before Kant’s own arrival. “Now as he,” recounts August Lewald in his memoirs, “entered Kant’s lecture hall and remained modestly at the door, the students started to click their tongues, whistle, and stamp. Mendelssohn took an empty chair[2] with an icy calm, and explained briefly and civilly that he wished to make Kant’s acquaintance. Only with Kant’s appearance did the noise abate, and soon his lecture drew the auditors to other matters. But at the end of the lecture, when Mendelssohn anxiously made his way through the crowd in order to reach the lectern, the sneering laughter rang out anew. But when the stranger said a few words to Kant, Kant warmly shook his hand and took him by the arm. Like wildfire, the news spread through the rows: “Moses Mendelssohn! The Jewish philosopher from Berlin!”, and the students out of honor formed a path as the two world sages left the lecture hall hand in hand.” [qtd. in Vorländer 1924, i.201-2; see also Richarz 1974, 79-80]
[1] Dietzsch [2003, 167-68] discusses this visit at some length, and notes that Lewald was a nephew to Kant’s student I. A. Euchel [bio].
[2] One wonders what degree of poetic license Lewald takes with this description, but on this point of the empty chair the following should be noted: the enrollment for Kant’s 7 AM logic lectures that semester was 50, while 23 were enrolled in the 8 AM lectures on natural law. Kant’s letter to Herz (below) indicates that Mendelssohn attended both lectures. Kant was likely still renting rooms from the publisher Kanter [more], both living and lecturing there. While we have no evidence of the seating capacity for the room Kant lectured in, an empty chair available for a late arrival to the logic lectures would be surprising.
SS 1777
Letter: Kant to Herz (20 August 1777) [index] [top]
This letter recounts the surprise visit that Kant received from Moses Mendelssohn, who was in Königsberg on business. August 20th fell on a Wednesday, and so Mendelssohn’s visit occurred on August 18 (Monday). On Mondays of that semester Kant was teaching Logic (7-8 AM) and Natural Law (8-9 AM), so these are apparently the lectures Mendelssohn attended. The fact that Mendelssohn had arrived in Königsberg on July 24 (Thursday), and had only now visited Kant, suggests that the recess was already in progress when he had arrived, and that Kant had perhaps already left for the countryside.
Today Herr Mendelssohn, your worthy friend and mine (for so I flatter myself), is departing. To have a man like him in Könïgsberg on a permanent basis, as an intimate acquaintance, a man of such gentle temperament, good spirits, and enlightenment — how that would give my soul the nourishment it has lacked so completely here, a nourishment I miss more and more as I grow older! For as far as bodily nourishment goes, you know I hardly worry about that and I am quite content with my share of earthly goods. I fear I did not manage to take full advantage of my one opportunity to enjoy this rare man, partly because I worried about interfering with his business here. The day before yesterday he honored me by attending two of my lectures, taking potluck, so to speak, since the table was not set for such a distinguished guest. The lecture must have seemed somewhat incoherent to him, since I had to spend most of the hour reviewing what I had said before vacation. The clarity and order of the original lecture were largely absent. Please help me to keep up my friendship with this fine man. [Ak. 10:211; repr. Malter 1990, 142-3; Walford transl.]
Heute reiset Ihr und, wie ich mir schmeichle, auch mein würdiger Freund Herr Mendelssohn von hier ab. Einen solchen Mann, von so sanfter Gemüthsart, guter Laune und hellem Kopfe in Königsberg zum beständigen und inniglichen Umgange zu haben, würde dieienige Nahrung der Seele seyn, deren ich hier so gänzlich entbehren muß und die ich mit der Zunahme der Iahre vornehmlich vermisse; denn, was die des Körpers betrift, so werden Sie mich deshalb schon kennen, daß ich daran nur zuletzt und ohne Sorge oder Bekümmernis denke und mit meinem Antheil an den Glücksgütern vollig zufrieden bin. Ich habe es indessen nicht so einzurichten gewußt, daß ich von dieser einzigen Gelegenheit, einen so seltenen Mann zu genießen, recht hätte Gebrauch machen können, zum Theil aus Besorgnis ihm etwa in seinen hiesigen Geschäften hinderlich zu werden. Er that mir vorgestern die Ehre zween meiner Vorlesungen beyzuwohnen, a la fortune du pot, wie man sagen könte, indem der Tisch auf einen so ansehnlichen Gast nicht eingerichtet war. Etwas tumultuarisch mu ihm der Vortrag diesmal vorgekommen seyn; indem die durch die ferien abgebrochene praelection zum theil summarisch wiederholt werden muste und dieses auch den größten Theil der Stunden wegnahm; wobey Deutlichkeit und Ordnung des ersten Vortrages großen theils vermißt wird. Ich bitte Sie, mir die Freundschaft dieses würdigen Mannes ferner zu erhalten.
21 Feb 1778
Letter: von Zedlitz to Kant [index] [top]
Karl Abraham Freiherr von Zedlitz (1731-1793)[bio] was the Prussian Minister of Culture and Education in Berlin.
I am now attending a class on physical geography with you, my dear Professor Kant, and the least that I can do is give my thanks for this. As wonderful as this may seem to you, at a distance of some 80 miles, I must really also admit that I am somewhat in the situation of a student who either is sitting too far from the lectern, or else hasn't yet grown accustomed to the professor's pronounciation, for the manuscript of Mr. Philippi that I am presently reading is rather unclear and sometimes also miswritten, and in some places it appears as though he was paying such close attention to your lecture, that he wrote, concerning many really important matters, only those remarks you made by way of clarification — which is just the advantage of one sitting closer to you, and one which I am lacking. Meanwhile, what I can decipher fills me with such a strong desire to know the rest as well. To ask you to publish your lectures might cause you an unpleasantness, but I would think you could not deny my request for help in procuring a copy of a more careful set of notes.... [#127; Ak. 10:222-23]
Ich höre jetzt ein Kollegium über die physische Geographie bei Ihnen, mein lieber Herr. P. Kant, und das wenigste, was ich tun kann, ist wohl, daß ich Ihnen meinen Dank dafür abstatte. So wunderbar Ihnen dieses bei einer Entfernung von etl. 80 Meilen vorkommen wird, so muß ich auch wirklich gestehen, daß ich in dem Fall eines Studenten bin, der entweder sehr weit vom Katheder sitzt oder der der Aussprache des Professors noch nicht gewohnt ist; denn das Msct. des HE. Philippi, das ich jetzt lese, ist etwas undeutlich u. manchmal auch unrichtig geschrieben, u. er scheint bei manchen Stellen so sehr auf Ihren Vortrag Acht gehabt zu haben, daß er bei vielen wirklich wichtigen Gegenständen nur eben so viel angemerkt hat, daß Sie solche erklärt haben, wie aber — das war eben der Vorteil des nahe sitzenden Zuhörers, den ich nicht habe. Indessen wächst durch das, was ich entziffre, der heißeste Wunsch, auch das übrige zu wissen. Ihnen zuzumuten, daß Sie Ihr Kollegium drucken ließen, das wäre Ihnen vielleicht unangenehm, aber die Bitte, dächt' ich, könnten Sie mir nicht versage, daß Sie mir zu einer Abschrift eines sorgfältiger nachgeschriebenen Vortrags behilflich wären....
28 Feb 1778
Letter: von Zedlitz to Kant [index] [top]
Karl Abraham Freiherr von Zedlitz (1731-1793)[bio], the Prussian Minister of Culture and Education in Berlin, opens this letter offering Kant a position at the university at Halle for a salary of 600 rth.[1] Zedlitz then turns to the matter of Kant's physical geography lecture notes mentioned in his letter of the previous week.
... Meine neuliche Bitte wegen der physischen Geographie bleibt aber dem ungeachtet bei Kräften. Der böse Schreiber macht mir zwar gottlos zu schaffen, wenn er von Kamtschaka redet, ist er mit einmal unter eben dieser Rubrike in der Vorstadt von Astracan. Er hat nichts Unwichtiges neiderschreiben können, aber untereinander hat er es gemischt wie der Kuckuck.
Aber was er mit den Käfern, Kakerlacks genannt, auf der Insel Java will, u. daß diese Käfer die Menschen anfressen, das ist mir wirklich als eine Unrichtigkeit vorkommen, da meines Wissens die Kakerlaks die homines nocturni des Buffons sind, die auch in dem Collegio vorher incidenter einmal beschrieben sind u. von denen gesagt wird, daß sie ein lusus naturae, wie weiße Raben wären, u. inhre Kinder Schwarze würden. Ich freue mich im voraus, das ganze Kollegium noch einmal nach einem korrektern Exemplar [225] durchzustudieren. Nach dem aber, was ich von Astracan u. Kamtschaka angeführt habe, werden Sie merken, daß ich morgen oder übermorgen fertig bin, also bitte ich sehr, sich meiner Begierde gütigst anzunehmen, so wie ich hoffe, daß Sie mir auf den gegenwärtigen Antrag ganz offenherzig u. bald antworten werden. Sie kennen den Königsb. Univ.-Fond u. wissen also, daß ich Ihnen dort zu keiner Verbßrung Hoffnung machen kann, u. in Halle kann ich das immer, wenn Sie auch nur 600 rth. zu Anfang haben. [#129; Ak. 10:224-25]
[1] Kant's current salary at Königsberg was just a little over 166 rth. A fuller discussion of this teaching offer can be found in the Professors pages.
Johan Bernoulli (1744-1807) traveled through Europe in 1778, including a brief visit to Königsberg (June 29-July 2), which he recorded in his memoires. After offering a description of Kant’s bearing and physical appearance, he notes that Kant...
I ate lunch at the the Graf von Kayserling’s with a scholar whom the Königsberg university honors as one of its greatest adornments, Professor Kant. This famous philosopher is such a lively and pleasant man in conversation, and with such fine manners, that one would not easily suspect him of being a deep thinker, except that his eyes and facial features immediately betray a sharp wit, and the similarity of these with d’Alembert was for me especially striking. This scholar has many followers in Königsberg; and that there are more metaphysicians here, I think, than at other high schools, he may well be contributing much to that. He is now giving a course of lectures to much acclaim,[1] and whose final purpose is to provide his listeners with a correct understanding of human beings, their deeds, and of the variety of events and behaviors, etc., that occur in human life; intermingled with stories and anecdotes of every sort of people and land that add spice to the lectures and make them even more instructive and popular. Of Mr. Kant’s philosophical writings nothing has appeared in print for a long time, although he promised to publish a small book next.[2] [Qtd. in Malter 1990, 147]
Ich speisete des Mittags bey dem Grafen von Kayserling, mit einem Gelehrten, welchen die Königsberg Universität als eine ihrer größten Zierden verehret, dem Herrn Professor Kant. Dieser berühmte Philosoph ist im Umgange ein so lebhafter und artiger Mann, und von so feiner Lebensart, daß man den tiefforschenden Geist nicht so leicht bey ihm vermuthen würde; viel Witz aber verrathen sogleich seine Augen und seine Gesichtszüge, und die Aehnlichket derselben mit d’Alembert war mir besonders auffallend. Dieser Gelehrte hat in Königsberg viele Anhänger; und daß hier, wie mich dünkt, mehr Metaphysiker sind, als auf andern hohen Schulen, dazu mag er wohl vieles beytragen. Er las nun ein Collegium, welches grossen Beyfall fand, und zum Endzweck hatte, seinen Zuhörern richtige Begriffe von den Menchsen, ihren Thaten, und von den mannichfaltigen im menschlichen Leben sich ereignenden Vorfällen, Handlungen u.s.w. beyzubringen; untermischte Geschichte und Anekdoten von allerley Leuten und Ländern würzelten diese Vorlesungen, und machten sie noch lehrreicher und beliebter. Von Herrn Kants philosophischen Schriften war nun schon lange nichts im Druck erschienen, er versprach aber nächtstens wieder ein Bändchen herauszugeben.
[1] During SS 1778, Kant lectured on logic, physical geography, and natural law. Bernoulli was describing the course on physical geography.
[2] The “small book” is presumably Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, which he would publish three years later in 1781.
SS 1778
Letter: von Zedlitz to Kant (1 August 1778) [index] [top]
Karl Abraham Freiherr von Zedlitz (1731-1793)[bio] writes about physical geography and Herz’s [bio] anthropology lectures that he plans to attend that coming fall.
I would be blocking my own light, my dear Professor Kant, if I did not by all means approve the delay of your sending your Physical Geography. The causes that you cite are to my advantage. A while ago I began Bergman’s physical description of the earth, which I am still lingering over, however much I’m irritated by the translator, who does not once take the trouble to convert the unhelpful Swedish measures to our own, and who has such a sloppy style and is often incorrect.
This winter I will be hearing rational anthropology with your former student, Mr. Herz. I’m hoping for much good from this class. Since I have no extra time for listening to wind-bags at school, I am always very careful before I take on such a thing, indeed, often before I even begin to read a book; but Mendelssohn [bio] has vouched for Herz’s talent, and based on his assurance I would undertake anything, especially since I know you respect Herz and are in correspondence with him.
Stretch out your interpretive talents so far so as to give me the means to hold back the students at the university from the vocational courses [in the upper three faculties], and to make them understand that the little bit of law — indeed, even theology and medicine — is infinitely easier and more certain in its application, if the apprentice has more philosophical knowledge; that one is a judge, lawyer, preacher, physician for only a few hours each day, but there are so many more where one is a human being, and in need of other sciences. In sum, you must teach me how to make the students understand this. Printed instructions, laws, rules — all that is worse than the vocational courses themselves.
Ich stünde mir selbst im Lichten, mein Lieber H. P. Kant, wenn ich nicht den Verzug der Übersendung Ihrer phys. Geogr. auf all Weise genehmigen wollte. Die Ursachen, die Sie anführen, gereichen zu meinem Vorteil. Ich habe vor einiger Zeit Bergmans phys. Beschreibung der Erdkugel angefange, die mich noch etwas aufhalten wird, so sehr ich mich auch über den Übersetzer ärgre, der sich nicht einmal die Mühe gegeben, das unbehilfliche Schwedsche Maß auf unseres zu reduzieren u. der einen so schlaudrigen Stil hat u. oft unrichtig ist.
Ich werde diesen Winter bei Ihrem ehemaligen Schüler, dem H. Herz, die Anthropologiam rationalem hören. Ich verspreche mir sehr viel Gutes von dem Collegio. Da ich nicht Zeit übrig habe, bei Stümpern in die Schule zu gehen, so bin ich immer sehr behutsam, ehe ich so was, ja oft ehe ich die Lektüre eines Buches anfange, allein Mendelssohn hat für Herzes Talent gutgesagt, und auf dessen Bürgerschaft unternähme ich wohl wer weiß was, zumal da ich weiß, daß Sie für Herzen Achtung haben u. mit ihm in einer Art von Briefwechsel sind.
Erstreckt sich Ihr heuristisches Talent so weit, so geben Sie mir doch Mittel an die Hand, die Studenten auf Universitäten von den Brot-Collegiis zuruck zu halten u. ihnen begreiflich zu machen, daß das bißchen Richterei, ja selbst Theologie u. Arzneigelahrheit unendlich leichter u. in der Anwendung sichrer wird, wenn der Lehrling mehr philosophische Kenntnis hat, daß man doch nur wenige Stunden des Tages Richter, Advokat, Prediger, Arzt u. in so vielen Mensch ist, wo man noch andre Wissenschaften nötig hat — kurz dies alles sollen Sie mich lehren den Studenten begreiflich zu machen. Gedruckte Anweisung, Leges, Reglements das ist alles noch schlimmer als das Brot-Colleg selbst.
SS 1778
Letter: Kant to Herz (28 August 1778) [index] [top]
Kant’s former student Marcus Herz gave the first lectures on Kant’s philosophy in Berlin; or rather, he gave lectures from notes of Kant’s own lectures, which is something rather different. In a no longer extant letter he asked Kant for notes on logic and metaphysics. Kant responded on 28 August 1778:
I should be very pleased to gratify your wish, especially when the purpose is connected with my own interest. However, it is impossible for me to do so as quickly as you ask. Whatever depends on the diligence and aptitude of my students is invariably difficult, because it is a matter of luck whether one has attentive and capable students during a certain period of time and also because those whom one has recently had disperse themselves and are not easily to be found again. It is seldom possible to persuade one of them to give away his own transcript. But I shall try to attend to it as soon as possible. I may yet find something here or there on the logic course. But metaphysics is a course that I have worked up in the last few years in such a way that I fear it must be difficult even for a discerning head to get precisely the right idea from somebody’s lecture notes. Even though the idea seemed to me intelligible in the lecture, still, since it was taken down by a beginner and deviates greatly both from my formal statements and from ordinary concepts, it will call for someone with a head as good as your own to present it systematically and understandably.
When I have finished my handbook on that part of philosophy on which I am still working indefatigably, which I think will be soon, then every transcription of that sort will also become fully comprehensible, through the clarity of the overall plan. In the meantime I shall make an effort to find a serviceable set of lecture notes for your purposes. Herr Kraus [bio] has been in Elking for several weeks but will return shortly, and I shall speak to him about it. Why don't you start with the logic? While that is progressing, the materials for the remaining work will be gathered. Although this is supposed to be a task for the winter, it may be possible to gather the supplies before the summer is over, thus allowing you time for preparation. [Ak. 10: 240-41; transl. Zweig 1999, 168-69]
Ihrem Verlangen, vornemlich bey einer Absicht, die mit meinem eigenen Interesse in Verbindung steht, zu willfahren, kan mir nicht [241] anders als sehr angenehm seyn. So geschwinde aber, als Sie es fodern, kan dieses unmöglich geschehen. Alles, was auf den Fleiß und die Geschiklichkeit meiner Zuhörer ankömmt, ist iederzeit mißlich, weil es ein Glück ist, in einem gewissen Zeitlaufe aufmerksame und fähige Zuhörer zu haben und weil auch die, so man vor kurzem gehabt hat, sich verstieben und nicht leicht wieder aufzufinden seyn. Seine eigene Nachschrift wegzugeben, dazu kan man selten einen bereden. Ich werde aber zusehen es so bald als möglich auszuwirken. Von der Logik möchte sich noch hie oder da etwas ausführliches finden. Aber Metaphysik ist ein Collegium, was ich seit den letztern Iahren so bearbeitet habe, daß ich besorge, es möchte auch einem scharfsinnigen Kopfe schwer werden, aus dem Nachgeschriebenen die Idee praecise herauszubekommen, die im Vortrage zwar meinem Bedüncken nach verständlich war, aber, da sie von einem Anfänger aufgefaßt worden und von meinen Vormaligen und den gemein angenommenen Begriffen sehr abweicht, einen so guten Kopf als den Ihrigen erfodern würde, systematisch und begreiflich darzustellen.
Wenn ich mein Handbuch über diesen Theil der Weltweisheit, als woran ich noch unermüdet arbeite, fertig habe, welches ich ietzt bald im Stande zu seyn glaube, so wird eine iede dergleichen Nachschrift, durch die Deutlichkeit des Planes, auch völlig verständlich werden. Ich werde mich indeß bemühen, so gut als es sich thun läßt, eine Ihren Absichten dienliche Abschrift aufzufinden. HE. Kraus ist seit einigen Wochen in Elbing, wird aber in kurzem zurückkommen und ich werde ihn darüber besprechen. Fangen Sie immer nur die Logik an. Binnen dem Fortgange derselben werden die materialien zu dem übrigen schon gesammelt seyn. Wiewohl, da dieses eine Beschäftigunrg Winters werden soll, so kan dieser Vorrath vielleicht noch vor Ablauf des Sommers herbeygeschaffet werden und ihnen Zeit zur Vorbereitung geben. [Ak. 10: 240-41]
WS 1778/79
Edict: von Zedlitz (16 October 1778) [index] [top]
Karl Abraham Freiherr von Zedlitz (1731-1793)[bio], as the Prussian Minister of Culture and Education in Berlin, sent an edict to the university of Königsberg, in part concerning the use (or lack) of textbooks:
Prof. Christiani [lecturing] on General Practical Philosophy, in which he should be acquainted with [the textbooks of] Feder and Wolff; Prof. Buck on Experimental Physics, and also a special course on Theoretical Physics, on which he is surely familiar with Erxleben’s text. Dr. Pisansky on Latin Style, on which Heineccius and others have written quite well. All of these are reading from their own notes. The worst textbook is certainly better than none, and professors may, if they possess so much wisdom, improve upon their authors to the extent that they can, but the reading from notes must simply be stopped. From this we nevertheless make exception of Professor Kant and his course on Physical Geography, for which no appropriate textbook is yet available.
WS 1778/79
Letter: Kant to Herz (20 October 1778) [index] [top]
To be of service to my upright and indefatigable capable friend, in a matter that will reflect back some approbation on myself as well, is always pleasant and important to me. However, there are many difficulties in carrying out the commission you gave me. Those of my students who are most capable of grasping everything are just the ones who bother least to take explicit and verbatim notes; rather, they write down only the main points, which they can think over afterwards. those who are most thorough in note-taking are seldom capable of distinguishing the important from the unimportant. They pile a mass of misunderstood stuff under what they may possibly have grasped correctly. Besides, I have almost no private acquaintance with my auditors, and it is difficult for me even to find out which ones might have accomplished something useful. My discussion of empirical psychology is now briefer, since I lecture on anthropology. But since I make improvements or extensions of my lectures from year to year, especially in the systematic and, if I may say, architectonic form and ordering of what belongs within the scope of a science, my students cannot very easily help themselves by copying from each other. [Ak. 10: 242; transl. Zweig 1999, 170]
Meinem rechtschaffenen und mit seinem Talente so unverdrossen thätigen Freunde vornemlich in einem Geschäfte woraus etwas von dem dadurch erworbenen Beyfall auf mich zurück fließt, zu Diensten zu seyn ist mir iederzeit angenehm und wichtig. Indessen hat die Bewirkung dessen was Sie mir auftragen viel Schwierigkeit. Dieienige von meinen Zuhöreren die am meisten Fahigkeit besitzen alles wohl zu fassen sind gerade die so am wenigsten ausführlich u. dictatenmäßig nachschreiben sondern sich nur Hauptpunkte notiren welchen sie hernach nachdenken. Die so im Nachschreiben weitläuftig sind haben selten Urtheilskraft das wichtige vom unwichtigen zu unterscheiden und häufen eine Menge misverstandenes Zeug unter das was sie etwa richtig auffassen möchten. Uberdem habe ich mit meinen Auditoren fast gar keine Privatbekantschaft und es ist mir schweer auch nur die aufzufinden die hierinn etwas taugliches geleistet haben möchten. Empirische Psychologie fasse ich ietzo kürzer nachdem ich Anthropologie lese. Allein da von Iahr zu Iahr mein Vortrag einige Verbesserung oder auch Erweiterung erhält vornemlich in der systematischen und wenn ich sagen soll Architektonischen Form und Anordnung dessen was in den Umfang einer Wissenschaft gehöret so können die Zuhörer sich nicht so leicht damit daß einer dem andern nachschreibt helfen. [Ak. 10: 242]
WS 1778/79
Letter: Herz to Kant (24 November 1778, #143) [index] [top]
I am enjoying a degree of happiness this winter to which I never aspired even in my dreams. Today, for the twentieth time, I am lecturing on your philosophical teachings to approbation that exceeds all my expectations. The number of people in my audience grows daily; it is already over thirty, all of them people of high status or profession. Professors of medicine, preachers, lawyers, government administrators, and so on, of whom our worthy minister [Zedlitz] is the leading one; he is always the first to arrive and the last to leave, and has yet to miss a single session, as have any of the others. It seems to me, my dear teacher, that this course is in many ways one of the most remarkable happenings, and not a day passes that I do not reflect on the impossibility of ever repaying you, through any act of mine, the tenth part of the happiness I enjoy in a single hour, which I owe to you and to you alone!
I have now completed half of the logic and hope to be finished with the other half by January. I have several very complete notebooks of your lectures on logic, and to these I owe my audience’s applause; here and there your fruitful ideas led me to other views that appeal to my listeners. But the foundations of it all are yours.
It will all depend on you whether I can carry off the metaphysics course. I don’t have even an incomplete copy of your lectures, and certainly the whole business wil be virtually impossible for me without them. To build up the course from scratch, all alone, is not within my powers, nor have I the time, since most of my time is taken up with my practical work.
I beg you again, therefore, to send me, with the earliest mail, at least some incomplete notebooks, if the complete ones are not to be had. Diversity, I think, will compensate for incompleteness, since each set of notes will have noticed something different. I beg you especially for an ontology and a cosmology. [ … ] [Ak. 10:244-45; Zweig 1999, 171-2; translation slightly ammended]
Ich genieße diesen Winter eine Glückseligkeit, zu welcher meine Phantasie nie in ihren Wünschen hatte versteigen können. Ich verkündige heute bereits zun zwanzigsten mahl ofentlich Ihre philosophische Lehren mit einem Beyfall, der über alle meine Erwartung gehet. Die Anzahl meiner Zuhörer nimt täglich zu, sie ist schon bis auf einige u. dreyßig herangewachsen, lauter Leute vom Stande und Gelahrte von Profeßion. Profeßores der Medizin, Prediger Geheimräthe, Bergräthe, u. s. w. unter denen unser würdiger Minister das Haupt ist; er ist imer der erste auf meiner Stube u. der letzte der hinweg gehet, und hat bisher, so wie keiner von den übrigen noch nie eine Stunde versäumt. Ich muß es gestehen mein theurster Lehrer, daß dieses Collegium von vielen Seiten betrachtet, eine der merkwürdigsten Erscheinungen ist; und es vergehet kein Tag, wo ich nicht darüber nachdenke, wie unmöglich es ist, daß ich durch alle meine Handlungen in der Welt, den zehnten Theil der Glückseligkeit Ihnen vergelten könnte, die ich durch Sie, bloß u. allein durch Sie, in einer einzigen Stunde genieße!
Ich habe nun die helfte der Logic zurückgelegt, u. denke bis Januarius mit der andern Helfte zu Ende zu kommen. Ich besitze einige sehr vollkommene Heften Ihrer logischen Vorlesungen, u. diesen habe ich den Beyfall zu danken; nur hier u. da haben mich Ihre so fruchtbarn Ideen, auf Aussichten geführt, die meinen Zuhörern gefallen. Der Grund zu allen liegt in Ihnen.
Es wird nunmehr lediglich von Ihnen abhängen, ob ich mich in der Metaphisick werde erhalten könen. Ich besitze auch nicht einmahl unvollständige Abschriften von Ihren Vorlesungen; u. gleichwohl wird mir das ganze Geschäfft ohne diese fast unmöglich werden. Von Grund auf, so ganz ungerichtet, allein zu bauen, dazu habe ich weder Kräfte, noch Zeit davon der größte Theil von meinen praktischen Geschäfften mir entrissen wird.
Ich bitte also nochmahls, mir mit erster Post, wenn es nun mit den sehr vollständigen Heften schon noch einigen Anstand haben muß, wenigstens einige unvollständigen zu schicken. Die Verschiedenheit, denke ich, wird die Unvollständigkeit einigermaßen ersetzen; indem jeder doch Etwas anders sich merkt. Vorzüglich bitte ich vor der Hand um eine Ontologie u. Cosmologie. [Ak. 10:244-45]
WS 1778/79
Letter: Kant to Herz (15 December 1778) [index] [top]
I have not forgotten your instructions, although at the same time I won’t be able to immediately satisfy them. For it was almost impossible to locate a set of notes from my course on philosophical encyclopedia, and I haven’t had time to look through it or change any of it. I'm sending it to you nevertheless since you might be able to find or prize out something in it that might make easier a systematic concept of the pure cognitions of the understanding, insofar as they actually arise in us from a single principle. Mr. Kraus [bio], to whom I gave this manuscript, has promised to locate one, maybe two sets of notes on the metaphysics lectures during his trip, and to give them to you. Since he's moved on to other sciences, after having started with my lectures, he won’t be attending your lectures, which I also find advisable, since this sort of material would only cause conflict.
I warmly recommend him for your friendship as a clear thinking and hopeful young man. The cause of my inability to produce detailed notes is that, since 1770, I have lectured on logic and metaphysics only publicly, where I get to know far fewer of my students, when I don’t lose track of them altogether. At the same I especially would like to procure for you the “prolegomena” and “ontology” of my metaphysics, following my new lectures, in which the nature of this knowing or reasoning is explained far better than before, and much has gone into the announcement I’m now working on. [Ak. 10: 245-46; repr. Malter 1990, 151-52]
Ich bin Ihres Auftrages nicht uneingedenk gewesen ob ich gleich nicht sogleich demselben ein Gnüge thun können. Denn kaum ist es mir möglich gewesen eine Nachschrift von einem collegio der philos: Encyclop: aufzutreiben aber ohne Zeit zu haben es durchzusehen oder was daran zu änderen. Ich überschicke es gleichwohl weil darinn vielleicht etwas gefunden oder daraus errathen werden kan was einen systematischen Begrif der reinen Verstandeserkentnisse so fern sie wirklich aus einem princip in uns entspringen erleichtern könte. HE. Kraus dem ich dieses mitgegeben habe hat mir versprochen eine, vielleicht auch zwey Abschriften des Metaph: Collegii auf seiner Reise aufzutreiben und Ihnen abzugeben. Da er sich seit seinem Anfange in meinen Stunden nachdem auf andere Wissenschaften gelegt hat so wird er sich mit Ihren Vorlesungen gar nicht befassen welches ich auch am rathsamsten finde weil dergleichen in Materien von dieser Art nur einen Schauplatz von Streitigkeiten eröfnen würde.
Ich empfehle ihn als einen wohldenkenden und hofnungsvollen iungen Mann Ihrer Freundschaft auf das inständigste. Die Ursache weswegen ich mit Herbeyschaffung ausführlicher Abschriften nicht glücklich gewesen bin ist diese weil ich seit 1770 Logic u. Metaph: nur publice gelesen habe wo ich sehr wenige meiner auditoren kenne die sich auch bald ohne daß man sie auffinden kan verliehren. Gleichwohl wünschete ich vornemlich Prolegomena der Metaph: u. die Ontologie nach meinem neuen Vortrage Ihnen verschaffen zu kennen in welchem die Natur dieses Wissens oder Vernünftelns weit besser wie sonst aus einander gesetzt ist und manches eingeflossen an dessen Bekanntmachung ich ietzt arbeite.
WS 1778/79
Letter: Kant to Herz (January 1779) [index] [top]
[...] How I wish I had a better manuscript to give you than the one Herr Kraus [bio] will deliver to you. If I could have foreseen this last winter I would have made some arrangements with my auditors. Now you will get very little out of these paltry notes, which your genius can nevertheless turn to advantage. When you have no further use for them, Herr Toussaint who is now staying in Berlin will ask for them to return them shortly before Easter. [Ak. 10: 247; transl. Zweig 1999, 1774]
Wie gerne wünschete ich, daß ich mit etwas besserem als das Manuscript ist, was Ihnen HE. Kraus einhändigen wird, dienen könte. Hätte ich dergleichen im Winter voriges Iahres voraus sehen können, so würde darüber bey meinen Auditoren einige Anstalt getroffen haben. Ietzt wird es Blutwenig seyn was Sie aus diesen armseligen Papieren herausfinden können das gleichwohl ihr genie wuchernd machen kan. Wen sie Ihnen nichts weiter nutzen so wird HE Toussaint, der sich itzt in Berlin aufhält, solche sich von Ihnen ausbitten, um sie kurz vor Ostern zurück zu bringen. [Ak. 10: 247]
1780s
Friedrich Theodore Rink (1770-1811)[bio] found Kant’s lecture style deteriorating by the late 1770s, and that...
His oral presentation itself was simple and unforced. The physical geography was animated by the more general interest in the subject-matter and through his narrative talent, and the anthropology by the many fine observations sprinkled throughout the lectures that he found either in own experiences or from his readings, borrowing especially from the best English novelists. One never left these lectures without learning something and enjoying oneself. The same was true of his logic and metaphysics lectures, at least for those able to follow him, but most of his students would have needed more interest, regardless of their diligence, to rise to the demands of those lectures. And it can’t be denied that already in the 1780s his delivery would from time to time lose some of its liveliness, such that one might have thought he was falling asleep, this opinion strengthened seeing him suddenly collect together his apparently drained energy. This notwithstanding, he remained up to the end a very conscientious teacher, and I can’t recall a single time, other than the usual vacations, that he did not hold class. [Rink 1805, 46-47; repr. Malter 1990, 157-8]
Sin mündlicher Vortrag selbst war simpel und ungesucht. In der physischen Geographie ward er durch das allgemeinere Interesse des Gegenstandes, und durch sein Erzähler-Talent, in der Anthropologie aber durch seine eingestreuten feinen Beobachtungen, die er aus seiner eignen Erfahrung oder aus der Lectüre, wie z. B. nahmentlich der besten englischen Romanenschreiber, entlehnt hatte, belebt. Nie verließ man unbelehrt und ohne angenehme Unterhaltung diese Vorlesungen. Dasselbe galt für den, welcher ihm zu folgen im Stande war, auch von seiner Logik und Metaphysik, aber der größere Theil seiner Zuhörer mag dennoch wohl, bey allem Fleiße, diesen Stunden für sein Bedürfniß ein größeres Interesse gewünscht haben. Und, zu leugnen ist es nicht, schon in den Jahren achtzig des letztvergangenen Jahrhunderts, verlor sein Vortrag zuweilen an Lebhaftigkeit in der Art, daß man hätte glauben mögen, er werde einschlummern; in welcher Meynung man bestärkt werden mußte, wenn man in seiner Körperbewegung dann mit einem Mahl ein plötzliches Zusammennehmen seiner abgespannt scheinenden Kräfte wahrnahm. Desungeachtet blieb er bis in die späteste Zeit ein sehr gewissenhafter Lehrer, und ich bin nicht im Stande, mir ein einziges Mahl den Fall in das Gedächtniß zurückzurufen, daß er, die gewöhnlichen Ferien ausgenommen, auch nur eine Stunde hätte ausfallen lassen.
Christian Friedrich Puttlich (1763-1836)[bio] was 19 years of age upon his matriculation at the university (23 March 1782), and kept a journal during his years there, including entries for the first days of his classes.
15th April [Monday] went to the first class in logic with Herr Professor Kant about 6:30 in the morning.
16th April [Tuesday]. In the morning I asked Herr Professor Kant to hear the course on physical geography for free and I received it also.
17th April [Wednesday]. I should have heard the physical geography class from 8 until 10 o’clock.
20th April [Saturday]. This morning Herr Professor Kant did not yet repeat the logic, but rather he lectured only on physical geography from 8 until 10. (Repr. Malter 1990, 186)
The logic class on Monday began at 7 AM; this was the first day of classes that semester. As was his custom, Kant would not begin his repetitorium until Saturday following the first week of classes (April 27). Puttlich also confirms the last date for Physical Geography as Sept. 21.
WS 1782/83
C. F. Puttlich [index] [top]
21 September. Professor Kant concluded physical geography.
14 October. Professor Kant began metaphysics, 7-8.
15 October. I went around 9 with Nicolovius to Professor Kant. I asked to take the course for free and Nicolovius pränumierte and subscribed.
16 October. Professor Kant began anthropology. [repr. Malter 1990, 190]
21. September. Der HE. Professor Kant schloß die physisiche Geographie.
14. October. Der HE. Professor Kant fing von 7-8 die Metaphysik an.
15. October. Ich ging um 9 mit dem HE. Nicolovius zum HE. Prof. Kant. Ich bat mir das Kollegium frey aus u. HE. Nicolovius pränumirirte u. subskribirte.
16. October. Der HE. Professor Kant find die Anthropologie an.
7 May. This morning at 8 o’clock I went to Prof. Kant, who was beginning his lectures on physical geography. But I decided that I wouldn't repeat it this semester since there was too little time. [Repr. Malter 1990, 239]
7. Mai. Morgens um 8 Uhr ging ich zu HE. Prof. Kant der die physische Geographie zu lesen anfing. Entschloß mich aber zugleich wegen Kürze der Zeit nicht dies Sommerhalbe Jahr zu wiederholen.
WS 1783/84
Letter: Hamann to Herder (26 October 1783) [index] [top]
Johann Georg Hamann (1730-1788).
[Kant] is now lecturing on philosophical theology to an amazing throng of auditors. [Ziesemer/Henkel 1955-79, v.87; Malter 1990, 240]
Reinhold Bernhard Jachmann (1767-1843)[bio] matriculated at the university on 11 April 1783, became Kant’s amanuensis in 1784, received his Magister degree in 1787, and was serving as a pastor in Marienburg in 1794. (Not to be confused with his older brother, Johann Benjamin, who had also worked as Kant’s amanuensis, and later became a physican.)& |