Natural law Notes

Kant lectured on natural law twelve times, and appears to have always used Gottfried Achenwall’s Jus naturae inusum auditorium, 5th ed [Göttingen 1763].  Only two sets of notes are known to us, and of these only Feyerabend is available. See the Natural Law lectures.

(1) Feyerabend

Other Names

Naturrecht Feyerabend [Lehmann 1979].

Physical Description and History

Bound, quarto volume (17 x 21 cm), 116 pp.  On the title-page: “Kants Naturrecht / gelesen / im / Winterhalben Jahre 1784.”  At the bottom right: “Gottfr: Feyerabend.”  Both sheets and pages are numbered (the former by a librarian, the latter perhaps by the copyist).  Very neatly written, ornate headings, margins about one-sixth the page width.  Catchwords used throughout.  Some marginalia (possibly written in a second hand), appears to be inserted into the text (although on ms 49 it is clearly the same hand).

Gottlieb [sic] Feyerabend matriculated on 6 May 1783.

This is part of the Mrongovius Nachlass in Gdansk.  Natorp [Ak. 6: 529] and Horn [1936] examined this manuscript in Danzig, and included a brief section on "De Matrimonio". Horn's transcription differs from that found in the Academy edition (Ak. 27: 1378-80); his reading is correct. Natorp compared the manuscript with the Metaphysics of Morals, which he was editing at the time for the Academy edition [on this see Lehmann 1979; 27: 1053-54].

Location

(1) Ms: Gdansk/Poland, Biblioteka PAN [Ms. 2215].

(2) Film: Marburg Kant-Archiv [Film 4].

Publications

(1) Horn [1936, 51-52].  This is a brief selection, covering the section “De Matrimonio” [ms. 111-12]. 

(2) Lehmann [1979; Ak. 27:1319-94].  This transcription is not wholly reliable, and should be checked against the manuscript.

Dating

SS 1784.

(2) Gentz

Physical Description and History

Listed in Stargardt’s auction catalog (#234) as: “Fr. von Gentz, Collegienheft über Kants Rechtslehre (Königsberg 1784)  28 p. folio”.  Friedrich von Gentz (1763-1832) matriculated at the Albertina on 26 April 1783 to study law, having first studied at Frankfurt/Oder.  His father was the Director of the Mint in Berlin, and the son made a name for himself as a conservative intellectual.  See Gentz’ letter to Kant (16 April 1783 [Ak. 10:314, #192]) and Kant’s letter to Mendelssohn (16 August 1783 [Ak. 10:344-47, #206]), as well as Gause [1996, ii.255-56; 1974, 27-28] and the long entry in the ADB [viii.577-93].

Location

(1) Ms: private possession.  Lost.