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==Biography==
Kant's mother, Anna Regina Reuter<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.koenigsberg-is-dead.de/I_Cosmopolis.html| title=Cosmopolis| publisher=Koenigsberg-is-dead.de| date=23 April 2001| access-date=24 July 2009| archive-date=22 March 2009| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090322094741/http://www.koenigsberg-is-dead.de/I_Cosmopolis.html| url-status=live}}</ref> (1697–1737), was born in [[Königsberg]] (since 1946 the city of [[Kaliningrad]], [[Kaliningrad Oblast]], [[Russia]]) to a father from [[Nuremberg]]. Her surname is sometimes erroneously given as Porter. Kant's father, Johann Georg Kant (1682–1746), was a German harness maker from [[Klaipėda|Memel]], at the time Prussia's most northeastern city (now [[Klaipėda]], [[Lithuania]]). Kant believed that his paternal grandfather Hans Kant was of Scottish origin.<ref>Mortensen, Hans and Gertrud, ''Kants väterliche Ahnen und ihre Umwelt, Rede von 1952 in Jahrbuch der Albertus-Universität zu Königsberg'', Pr., Holzner-Verlag, Kitzingen, Main 1953, Vol. 3, p. 26.</ref> While scholars of Kant's life<!--break to prevent bots miscorrecting this to "lifelong"--> long accepted the claim, there is no evidence that Kant's paternal line was Scottish and it is more likely that the Kants got their name from the village of Kantwaggen (today part of [[Priekulė, Lithuania|Priekulė]]) and were of [[Curonians|Curonian]] origin.<ref>R.K. Murray, "The Origin of Immanuel Kant's Family Name", ''Kantian Review'' '''13'''(1), March 2008, pp. 190-93.</ref><ref>Rosa Kohlheim, Volker Kohlheim, ''Duden – Familiennamen: Herkunft und Bedeutung von 20.000 Nachnamen'', Bibliographisches Institut & F.A. Brockhaus AG, Mannheim 2005, p. 365.</ref> Kant was the fourth of nine children (four of whom reached adulthood).<ref>{{cite web|last=Haupt|first=Viktor |url=http://www.freunde-kants.com/attachments/article/137/Bohnenrede%202015%20(de).pdf |title=Rede des Bohnenkönigs - Von Petersburg bis Panama - Die Genealogie der Familie Kant |website=freunde-kants.com |language=de|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925124214/http://www.freunde-kants.com/attachments/article/137/Bohnenrede%202015%20%28de%29.pdf |archive-date=25 September 2015 }}</ref>

Kant was born on 22 April 1724 into a [[Prussia]]n [[Germans|German]] family of [[Lutheran]] [[Protestant]] faith in Königsberg, East Prussia. Baptized Emanuel, he later changed the spelling of his name to Immanuel<ref>Kuehn 2001, p. 26.</ref> after learning [[Hebrew]]. He was brought up in a [[Pietism|Pietist]] household that stressed religious devotion, humility, and a literal interpretation of the [[Bible]].{{Citation needed |date=June 2017}} His education was strict, punitive and disciplinary, and focused on [[Latin]] and religious instruction over mathematics and science.<ref>Kuehn 2001, p. 47.</ref> Kant maintained Christian ideals for some time, but struggled to reconcile the faith with his belief in science.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Pomerleau|first=Wayne P.|url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/kant-rel/|title=Immanuel Kant: Philosophy of Religion|encyclopedia=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy|access-date=2019-10-18|archive-date=27 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131227180418/http://www.iep.utm.edu/kant-rel/|url-status=live}}</ref> In his ''[[Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals]]'', he reveals a belief in immortality as the necessary condition of humanity's approach to the highest morality possible.<ref>Metaphysics, p. 131</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.equip.org/article/immanuel-kant/|title=Immanuel Kant|publisher=Christian Research Institute|access-date=15 June 2017|archive-date=20 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620130216/http://www.equip.org/article/immanuel-kant/|url-status=live}}</ref> However, as Kant was skeptical about some of the arguments used prior to him in defence of [[theism]] and maintained that human understanding is limited and can never attain knowledge about God or the [[soul]], various commentators have labelled him a philosophical [[agnostic]].<ref>"While this sounds skeptical, Kant is only agnostic about our knowledge of metaphysical objects such as God. And, as noted above, Kant's agnosticism leads to the conclusion that we can neither affirm nor deny claims made by traditional metaphysics." Andrew Fiala, [[John Meiklejohn|J.M.D. Meiklejohn]], ''Critique of Pure Reason'' – Introduction, p. xi.
</ref><ref>
{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics: Surveying the Evidence for the Truth of Christianity|year=2008|publisher=Harvest House Publishers|isbn=978-0-7369-2084-1|editor1=Ed Hindson|editor2=Ergun Caner|author=Edward J. Verstraete|title=The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics|page=[https://archive.org/details/popularencyclope0000unse_p8q4/page/82 82]|quote=It is in this sense that modern atheism rests heavily upon the skepticism of David Hume and the agnosticism of Immanuel Kant.|url=https://archive.org/details/popularencyclope0000unse_p8q4/page/82}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book|title=I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist|year=2004|publisher=Crossway|isbn=978-1-58134-561-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/idonthaveenoughf00geis_0/page/59 59–60]|author1=Norman L. Geisler|author2=Frank Turek|chapter=Kant's Agnosticism: Should We Be Agnostic About It?|quote=Immanuel Kant's impact has been even more devastating to the Christian worldview than David Hume's. For if Kant's philosophy is right, then there is no way to know anything about the real world, even empirically verifiable things!|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/idonthaveenoughf00geis_0/page/59}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book|title=Light of Truth and Fire of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit|year=1997|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0-8028-4288-6|author=Gary D. Badcock|page=113|quote=Kant has no interest in prayer or worship, and is in fact agnostic when it comes to such classical theological questions as the doctrine of God or of the Holy Spirit.}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book|title=Why I Am a Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe |year=2006|publisher=Baker Books|isbn=978-0-8010-6712-9|editor=Norman L. Geisler, Paul K. Hoffman|page=45|chapter=The Agnosticism of Immanuel Kant}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Catholicism|year=2007|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-8160-7565-2|last=Flinn|first=Frank K. |page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofca0000flin/page/10 10]|quote=Following Locke, the classic agnostic claims not to accept more propositions than are warranted by empirical evidence. In this sense an agnostic appeals to Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), who claims in his Critique of Pure Reason that since God, freedom, immortality, and the soul can be both proved and disproved by theoretical reason, we ought to suspend judgement about them.|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofca0000flin/page/10}}
</ref>

Kant apparently lived a very strict and disciplined life; it was said that neighbors would set their clocks by his daily walks. He never married,<ref>Kuehn, M. (2001). Kant: A biography. New York: Cambridge University Press. p 169</ref> but seemed to have a rewarding social life — he was a popular teacher and a modestly successful author even before starting on his major philosophical works. He had a circle of friends with whom he frequently met, among them [[Joseph Green (merchant)|Joseph Green]], an English merchant in Königsberg.

Between 1750 and 1754 Kant worked as a tutor (''Hauslehrer'') in Judtschen<ref>{{cite book|last=Vorländer|first=Karl|chapter-url=https://www.textlog.de/35594.html|chapter=Bei Pfarrer Andersch in Judtschen|title=Immanuel Kant: Der Mann und das Werk|year=1924|access-date=2019-10-18|language=de|archive-date=18 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018113221/https://www.textlog.de/35594.html|url-status=live}}</ref> (now Veselovka, [[Russia]], approximately 20&nbsp;km) and in Groß-Arnsdorf<ref>{{cite book|last=Vorländer|first=Karl|chapter-url=https://www.textlog.de/35593.html|chapter=Bei Major von Hülsen in Arnsdorf|title=Immanuel Kant: Der Mann und das Werk|year=1924|access-date=2019-10-18|language=de|archive-date=1 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801211934/https://www.textlog.de/35593.html|url-status=live}}</ref> (now [[Jarnołtowo]] near [[Morąg]] (German: Mohrungen), [[Poland]], approximately 145&nbsp;km).

Many myths grew up about Kant's personal mannerisms; these are listed, explained, and refuted in Goldthwait's introduction to his translation of ''[[Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime]]''.<ref>
Kant, Immanuel. ''[[Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime]]''. Trans. John T. Goldthwait. University of California Press, 1961, 2003. {{ISBN|0-520-24078-2}}
</ref> 
===Young scholar===
Kant showed a great aptitude for study at an early age. He first attended the [[Collegium Fridericianum]] from which he graduated at the end of the summer of 1740. In 1740, aged 16, he enrolled at the [[University of Königsberg]], where he spent his whole career.<ref>''The American International Encyclopedia'' (New York: J.J. Little & Ives, 1954), Vol. IX.</ref> He studied the philosophy of [[Gottfried Leibniz]] and [[Christian Wolff (philosopher)|Christian Wolff]] under [[Martin Knutzen]] (Associate Professor of Logic and Metaphysics from 1734 until his death in 1751), a [[rationalism|rationalist]] who was also familiar with developments in British philosophy and science and introduced Kant to the new mathematical physics of [[Isaac Newton]]. Knutzen dissuaded Kant from the theory of [[pre-established harmony]], which he regarded as "the pillow for the lazy mind".<ref>{{cite book|title=What the Tortoise Taught Us: The Story of Philosophy|url=https://archive.org/details/whattortoisetaug00port|url-access=limited|last=Porter|first=Burton|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|year=2010|page=[https://archive.org/details/whattortoisetaug00port/page/n145 133]}}</ref> He also dissuaded Kant from [[idealism]], the idea that reality is purely mental, which most philosophers in the 18th century regarded in a negative light. The theory of [[transcendental idealism]] that Kant later included in the ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]'' was developed partially in opposition to traditional idealism.

His father's stroke and subsequent death in 1746 interrupted his studies. Kant left Königsberg shortly after August 1748<ref>Kuehn 2001, p. 94.</ref>—he would return there in August 1754.<ref>Kuehn 2001, p. 98.</ref> He became a private tutor in the towns surrounding Königsberg, but continued his scholarly research. In 1749, he published his first philosophical work, ''[[Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces]]'' (written in 1745–47).<ref>Eric Watkins (ed.), ''Immanuel Kant: Natural Science'', Cambridge University Press, 2012: [http://assets.cambridge.org/97805213/63945/excerpt/9780521363945_excerpt.pdf "Thoughts on the true estimation..."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307213516/http://assets.cambridge.org/97805213/63945/excerpt/9780521363945_excerpt.pdf |date=7 March 2016 }}.</ref>

===Early work===
Kant is best known for his work in the philosophy of ethics and metaphysics,<ref name="McCormick" /> but he made significant contributions to other disciplines. In 1754, while contemplating on a prize question by the [[Prussian Academy of Sciences|Berlin Academy]] about the problem of Earth's rotation, he argued that the Moon's gravity would slow down Earth's spin and he also put forth the argument that gravity would eventually cause the Moon's [[tidal locking]] to [[orbital resonance|coincide]] with the Earth's rotation.{{efn|Kant himself seems to have found his contribution not significant enough that he published his arguments in a newspaper commentary on the prize question and did not submit them to the Academy. The prize was instead awarded in 1756 to P. Frisi, who incorrectly argued against the slowing down of the spin.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schönfeld |first=Martin |title=The Philosophy of the Young Kant: The Precritical Project |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=84 |isbn=0-19-513218-1 |year=2000 }}</ref>}}<ref name="nebulous">{{cite book|last=Brush|first=Stephen G.|title=A History of Modern Planetary Physics: Nebulous Earth|year=2014|isbn=978-0-521-44171-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofmodernp0000brus/page/7 7]|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmodernp0000brus/page/7}}</ref> The next year, he expanded this reasoning to the [[formation and evolution of the Solar System]] in his ''[[Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens]]''.<ref name="nebulous"/> In 1755, Kant received a license to lecture in the University of Königsberg and began lecturing on a variety of topics including mathematics, physics, logic and metaphysics. In his 1756 essay on the theory of winds, Kant laid out an original insight into the [[coriolis force]]. In 1757, Kant began lecturing on geography being one of the first people to explicitly teach geography as its own subject.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Richards|first=Paul|date=1974|title=Kant's Geography and Mental Maps|journal=Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers|issue=61|pages=1–16|doi=10.2307/621596|jstor=621596}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Elden|first=Stuart|date=2009|title=Reassessing Kant's geography|journal=Journal of Historical Geography|language=en|volume=35|issue=1|pages=3–25|doi=10.1016/j.jhg.2008.06.001|url=http://dro.dur.ac.uk/6836/1/6836.pdf|access-date=27 September 2019|archive-date=1 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801205430/http://dro.dur.ac.uk/6836/1/6836.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Geography was one of Kant's most popular lecturing topics and in 1802 a compilation by Friedrich Theodor Rink of Kant's lecturing notes, ''Physical Geography'', was released. After Kant became a professor in 1770, he expanded the topics of his lectures to include lectures on natural law, ethics and anthropology along with other topics.<ref name=":0" />

[[File:Kant wohnhaus 2.jpg|thumb|Kant's house in Königsberg]]
In the ''Universal Natural History'', Kant laid out the [[Nebular hypothesis]], in which he deduced that the [[Solar System]] had formed from a large cloud of gas, a [[nebula]]. Kant also correctly deduced (though through usually false premises and fallacious reasoning, according to [[Bertrand Russell]])<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://users.drew.edu/jlenz/br-kant-review.html|last=Russell|first=Bertrand|title=Review of Kant's ''Cosmogony''|journal=Mind|series=n.s.|volume=10|issue=39 (July 1901)|page=405|access-date=12 February 2019|archive-date=1 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801211757/https://users.drew.edu/jlenz/br-kant-review.html|url-status=live}}</ref> that the [[Milky Way]] was a [[galaxy|large disk of stars]], which he theorized formed from a much larger spinning gas cloud. He further suggested that other distant "nebulae" might be other galaxies. These postulations opened new horizons for astronomy, for the first time extending it beyond the Solar System to galactic and intergalactic realms.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gamow|first=George|title=One Two Three... Infinity|location=New York|publisher=Viking P.|date=1947|pages=300ff|title-link=One Two Three... Infinity}}</ref> According to [[Thomas Henry Huxley|Thomas Huxley]] (1867), Kant also made contributions to geology in his ''Universal Natural History''.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

From then on, Kant turned increasingly to philosophical issues, although he continued to write on the sciences throughout his life. In the early 1760s, Kant produced a series of important works in philosophy. ''[[The False Subtlety of the Four Syllogistic Figures]]'', a work in logic, was published in 1762. Two more works appeared the following year: ''Attempt to Introduce the Concept of Negative Magnitudes into Philosophy'' and ''[[The Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God]]''. By 1764, Kant had become a notable popular author, and wrote ''[[Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime]]'';<ref name=":1" /> he was second to [[Moses Mendelssohn]] in a Berlin Academy prize competition with his ''Inquiry Concerning the Distinctness of the Principles of Natural Theology and Morality'' (often referred to as "The Prize Essay"). In 1766 Kant wrote ''Dreams of a Spirit-Seer'' which dealt with the writings of [[Emanuel Swedenborg]]. The exact influence of Swedenborg on Kant, as well as the extent of Kant's belief in [[mysticism]] according to ''Dreams of a Spirit-Seer'', remain controversial.<ref name="Myth of Disenchantment" /> On 31 March 1770, aged 45, Kant was finally appointed Full Professor of Logic and Metaphysics (''Professor Ordinarius der Logic und Metaphysic'') at the University of Königsberg. In defense of this appointment, Kant wrote his [[inaugural dissertation]] (''Inaugural-Dissertation'') ''De Mundi Sensibilis atque Intelligibilis Forma et Principiis'' (''On the Form and Principles of the Sensible and the Intelligible World)''.<ref name="RGT">Since he had written his last [[habilitation thesis]] 14 years earlier, a new habilitation thesis was required (see S.J. McGrath, Joseph Carew (eds.), ''Rethinking German Idealism'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, p. 24).</ref> This work saw the emergence of several central themes of his mature work, including the distinction between the faculties of intellectual thought and sensible receptivity. To miss this distinction would mean to commit the error of [[subreption]], and, as he says in the last chapter of the dissertation, only in avoiding this error does metaphysics flourish.

The issue that vexed Kant was central to what 20th-century scholars called "the [[philosophy of mind]]". The flowering of the natural sciences had led to an understanding of how data reaches the brain. Sunlight falling on an object is reflected from its surface in a way that maps the surface features (color, texture, etc.). The reflected light reaches the human eye, passes through the cornea, is focused by the lens onto the retina where it forms an image similar to that formed by light passing through a pinhole into a [[camera obscura]]. The retinal cells send impulses through the [[optic nerve]] and then they form a mapping in the brain of the visual features of the object. The interior mapping is not the exterior object, and our belief that there is a meaningful relationship between the object and the mapping in the brain depends on a chain of reasoning that is not fully grounded. But the uncertainty aroused by these considerations, by optical illusions, misperceptions, delusions, etc., are not the end of the problems.

Kant saw that the mind could not function as an empty container that simply receives data from outside. Something must be giving order to the incoming data. Images of external objects must be kept in the same sequence in which they were received. This ordering occurs through the mind's intuition of time. The same considerations apply to the mind's function of constituting space for ordering mappings of visual and tactile signals arriving via the already described chains of physical causation.

It is often claimed that Kant was a late developer, that he only became an important philosopher in his mid-50s after rejecting his earlier views. While it is true that Kant wrote his greatest works relatively late in life, there is a tendency to underestimate the value of his earlier works. Recent Kant scholarship has devoted more attention to these "pre-critical" writings and has recognized a degree of continuity with his mature work.<ref>Cf., for example, Susan Shell, ''The Embodiment of Reason'' (Chicago, 1996)</ref>

===''Critique of Pure Reason''===
{{Main|Critique of Pure Reason}}
At age 46, Kant was an established scholar and an increasingly influential philosopher, and much was expected of him. In correspondence with his ex-student and friend [[Markus Herz]], Kant admitted that, in the inaugural dissertation, he had failed to account for the relation between our sensible and intellectual faculties.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kuehn|first=Manfred|title=Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: Background Source Materials|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-521-78162-6|location=Cambridge, UK|pages=276}}</ref> He needed to explain how we combine what is known as sensory knowledge with the other type of knowledge{{mdash}}i.e. reasoned knowledge{{mdash}}these two being related but having very different processes.
[[File:Painting of David Hume.jpg|thumb|Portrait of philosopher [[David Hume]]]]

Kant also credited [[David Hume]] with awakening him from a "dogmatic slumber" in which he had unquestioningly accepted the tenets of both religion and [[natural philosophy]].<ref name=":02">{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Homer W.|url=https://archive.org/details/manhisgods00smit|title=Man and His Gods|publisher=[[Grosset & Dunlap]]|year=1952|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/manhisgods00smit/page/404 404]|author-link=Homer W. Smith|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>Immanuel Kant, ''Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics'', p. 57 (Ak. 4:260)</ref> Hume in his 1739 ''[[Treatise on Human Nature]]'' had argued that we only know the mind through a subjective{{mdash}}essentially illusory{{mdash}}series of perceptions.<ref name=":02" /> Ideas such as [[causality]], [[morality]], and [[Object (philosophy)|objects]] are not evident in experience, so their reality may be questioned. Kant felt that reason could remove this skepticism, and he set himself to solving these problems. Although fond of company and conversation with others, Kant isolated himself, and resisted friends' attempts to bring him out of his isolation.{{Efn|It has been noted that in 1778, in response to one of these offers by a former pupil, Kant wrote:
{{quote|Any change makes me apprehensive, even if it offers the greatest promise of improving my condition, and I am persuaded by this natural instinct of mine that I must take heed if I wish that the threads which the Fates spin so thin and weak in my case to be spun to any length. My great thanks, to my well-wishers and friends, who think so kindly of me as to undertake my welfare, but at the same time a most humble request to protect me in my current condition from any disturbance.<ref>Christopher Kul-Want and Andrzej Klimowski, ''Introducing Kant'' (Cambridge: Icon Books, 2005).{{page needed|date=October 2011}} {{ISBN|1-84046-664-2}}</ref>}}}} When Kant emerged from his silence in 1781, the result was the ''Critique of Pure Reason''. Kant countered Hume's [[empiricism]] by claiming that some knowledge exists inherently in the mind, independent of experience.<ref name=":02" /> He drew a parallel to the [[Copernican Revolution#Immanuel Kant|Copernican revolution]] in his proposal that worldly objects can be intuited ''[[A priori and a posteriori|a priori]]'' ('beforehand'), and that [[intuition]] is consequently distinct from [[Objectivity (philosophy)|objective reality]].{{Efn|name=apriori}} He acquiesced to Hume somewhat by defining causality as a "regular, constant sequence of events in time, and nothing more."<ref>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Homer W.|title=Man and His Gods|publisher=Grosset & Dunlap|year=1952|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/manhisgods00smit/page/416 416]}}</ref>

Although now uniformly recognized as one of the greatest works in the history of philosophy, this ''Critique'' disappointed Kant's readers upon its initial publication.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dorrien|first=Gary|title=Kantian Reason and Hegelian Spirit: The Idealistic Logic of Modern Theology|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2012|isbn=978-0-470-67331-7|location=Malden, MA|pages=37}}</ref> The book was long, over 800 pages in the original German edition, and written in a convoluted style. It received few reviews, and these granted it no significance.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}} Kant's former student, [[Johann Gottfried Herder]] criticized it for placing reason as an entity worthy of criticism instead of considering the process of reasoning within the context of language and one's entire personality.<ref>[[Frederick Copleston|Copleston, Frederick Charles]] (2003). ''The Enlightenment: Voltaire to Kant''. p. 146.</ref> Similar to [[Christian Garve]] and [[Johann Georg Heinrich Feder]], he rejected Kant's position that space and time possessed a form that could be analyzed. Additionally, Garve and Feder also faulted Kant's Critique for not explaining differences in perception of sensations.<ref>Sassen, Brigitte. ''Kant's Early Critics: The Empiricist Critique of the Theoretical Philosophy''. 2000.</ref> Its density made it, as Herder said in a letter to [[Johann Georg Hamann]], a "tough nut to crack", obscured by "all this heavy gossamer".<ref>''Ein Jahrhundert deutscher Literaturkritik'', vol. III, ''Der Aufstieg zur Klassik in der Kritik der Zeit'' (Berlin, 1959), p. 315; as quoted in Gulyga, Arsenij. ''Immanuel Kant: His Life and Thought.'' Trans., Marijan Despaltović. Boston: Birkhäuser, 1987.</ref> Its reception stood in stark contrast to the praise Kant had received for earlier works, such as his ''Prize Essay'' and shorter works that preceded the first Critique. These well-received and readable tracts include one on the [[1755 Lisbon earthquake|earthquake in Lisbon]] that was so popular that it was sold by the page.<ref>Gulyga, Arsenij. ''Immanuel Kant: His Life and Thought.'' Trans., Marijan Despaltović. Boston: Birkhäuser, 1987 pp. 28–29.</ref> Prior to the change in course documented in the first Critique, his books had sold well.<ref name=":1">Gulyga, Arsenij. ''Immanuel Kant: His Life and Thought.'' Trans., Marijan Despaltović. Boston: Birkhäuser, 1987, p. 62.</ref> Kant was disappointed with the first Critique's reception. Recognizing the need to clarify the original treatise, Kant wrote the ''[[Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics]]'' in 1783 as a summary of its main views. Shortly thereafter, Kant's friend Johann Friedrich Schultz (1739–1805) (professor of mathematics) published ''Erläuterungen über des Herrn Professor Kant Critik<!--[sic]--> der reinen Vernunft'' (Königsberg, 1784), which was a brief but very accurate commentary on Kant's ''Critique of Pure Reason''.

[[File:Immanuel Kant 3.jpg|thumb|Engraving of Immanuel Kant]]

Kant's reputation gradually rose through the latter portion of the 1780s, sparked by a series of important works: the 1784 essay, "[[What is Enlightenment?|Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?]]"; 1785's ''[[Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals]]'' (his first work on moral philosophy); and, from 1786, ''[[Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science]].'' But Kant's fame ultimately arrived from an unexpected source. In 1786, [[Karl Leonhard Reinhold]] published a series of public letters on Kantian philosophy.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Guyer|first=Paul|title=The Cambridge Companion to Kant and Modern Philosophy|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2006|isbn=0-521-82303-X|location=Cambridge, UK|pages=631}}</ref> In these letters, Reinhold framed Kant's philosophy as a response to the central intellectual controversy of the era: the [[Pantheism Dispute]]. [[Friedrich Jacobi]] had accused the recently deceased [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing]] (a distinguished dramatist and philosophical essayist) of [[Spinozism]]. Such a charge, tantamount to atheism, was vigorously denied by Lessing's friend [[Moses Mendelssohn]], leading to a bitter public dispute among partisans. The [[scandal|controversy]] gradually escalated into a debate about the values of the Enlightenment and the value of reason.

Reinhold maintained in his letters that Kant's ''Critique of Pure Reason'' could settle this dispute by defending the authority and bounds of reason. Reinhold's [[Letter (message)|letters]] were widely read and made Kant the most famous philosopher of his era.

===Later work===
Kant published a second edition of the ''Critique of Pure Reason'' in 1787, heavily revising the first parts of the book. Most of his subsequent work focused on other areas of philosophy. He continued to develop his moral philosophy, notably in 1788's ''[[Critique of Practical Reason]]'' (known as the second ''Critique'') and 1797's ''[[Metaphysics of Morals]]''. The 1790 ''[[Critique of Judgment]]'' (the third ''Critique'') applied the Kantian system to aesthetics and [[teleology]]. It was in this critique where Kant wrote one of his most popular statements: "it is absurd to hope that another Newton will arise in the future who will make comprehensible to us the production of a blade of grass according to natural laws".<ref>{{cite book|last=Wolfram|first=Stephen|title=A New Kind of Science|publisher=Wolfram Media, Inc.|year=2002|page=[https://archive.org/details/newkindofscience00wolf/page/861 861]|isbn=978-1-57955-008-0|url=https://archive.org/details/newkindofscience00wolf/page/861}}</ref>

In 1792, Kant's attempt to publish the Second of the four Pieces of ''[[Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason]]'',<ref name="KReligion">Werner S. Pluhar, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=da8RrM-qkiwC&pg=PR7#v=onepage&q&f=false Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304020309/https://books.google.com/books?id=da8RrM-qkiwC&pg=PR7#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=4 March 2020 }}''.  2009. [https://books.google.com/books/about/Religion_Within_the_Bounds_of_Bare_Reaso.html?id=da8RrM-qkiwC Description] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200201192948/https://books.google.com/books/about/Religion_Within_the_Bounds_of_Bare_Reaso.html%3Fid%3Dda8RrM-qkiwC |date=1 February 2020 }} & [https://books.google.com/books?id=da8RrM-qkiwC&pg=PR7#v=onepage&q&f=false Contents.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304020309/https://books.google.com/books?id=da8RrM-qkiwC&pg=PR7#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=4 March 2020 }}  With an [https://books.google.com/books?id=da8RrM-qkiwC&pg=PR15#v=onepage&q&f=false Introduction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803085237/https://books.google.com/books?id=da8RrM-qkiwC&pg=PR15#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=3 August 2020 }} by Stephen Palmquist. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company,</ref> in the journal ''Berlinische Monatsschrift'', met with opposition from the King's [[censorship]] commission, which had been established that same year in the context of the [[French Revolution]].<ref name="DerridaKantCensorship"/> Kant then arranged to have all four pieces published as a book, routing it through the philosophy department at the University of Jena to avoid the need for theological censorship.<ref name="DerridaKantCensorship">Derrida, ''Vacant Chair'' p. 44.</ref> This insubordination earned him a now famous reprimand from the King.<ref name="DerridaKantCensorship"/> When he nevertheless published a second edition in 1794, the censor was so irate that he arranged for a royal order that required Kant never to publish or even speak publicly about religion.<ref name="DerridaKantCensorship"/> Kant then published his response to the King's reprimand and explained himself, in the preface of ''The Conflict of the Faculties''.<ref name="DerridaKantCensorship"/>

[[File:Kant doerstling2.jpg|thumb|Kant with friends, including [[Christian Jakob Kraus]], [[Johann Georg Hamann]], [[Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel the Elder|Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel]] and [[Karl Gottfried Hagen]]]]
He also wrote a number of semi-popular essays on history, religion, politics and other topics. These works were well received by Kant's contemporaries and confirmed his preeminent status in 18th-century philosophy. There were several journals devoted solely to defending and criticizing Kantian philosophy. Despite his success, philosophical trends were moving in another direction. Many of Kant's most important disciples and followers (including [[Karl Leonhard Reinhold|Reinhold]], [[Jakob Sigismund Beck|Beck]] and [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte|Fichte]]) transformed the Kantian position into increasingly radical forms of idealism. The progressive stages of revision of Kant's teachings marked the emergence of [[German Idealism]]. Kant opposed these developments and publicly denounced Fichte in an open letter in 1799.<ref name = "Fichte">{{cite web|url=http://www.korpora.org/Kant/aa12/370.html|title=Open letter by Kant denouncing Fichte's Philosophy|language=de|website=Korpora.org|access-date=24 July 2009|archive-date=19 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719150635/http://www.korpora.org/Kant/aa12/370.html|url-status=live}}</ref> It was one of his final acts expounding a stance on philosophical questions. In 1800, a student of Kant named Gottlob Benjamin Jäsche (1762–1842) published a manual of logic for teachers called ''Logik'', which he had prepared at Kant's request. Jäsche prepared the ''Logik'' using a copy of a textbook in logic by [[Georg Friedrich Meier]] entitled ''Auszug aus der Vernunftlehre'', in which Kant had written copious notes and annotations. The ''Logik'' has been considered of fundamental importance to Kant's philosophy, and the understanding of it. The great 19th-century logician [[Charles Sanders Peirce]] remarked, in an incomplete review of [[Thomas Kingsmill Abbott]]'s English translation of the introduction to ''Logik'', that "Kant's whole philosophy turns upon his logic."<ref>Peirce, C.S., ''Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce'', v. 1, (HUP, 1960), 'Kant and his Refutation of Idealism' p. 15
</ref> Also, [[Robert Schirokauer Hartman]] and Wolfgang Schwarz, wrote in the translators' introduction to their English translation of the ''Logik'', "Its importance lies not only in its significance for the ''Critique of Pure Reason'', the second part of which is a restatement of fundamental tenets of the ''Logic'', but in its position within the whole of Kant's work."<ref>Kant, Immanuel, ''Logic'', G.B. Jäsche (ed), R.S. Hartman, W. Schwarz (translators), Indianapolis, 1984, p. xv.</ref>

===Death and burial===
Kant's health, long poor, worsened and he died at Königsberg on 12 February 1804, uttering "''Es ist gut'' (It is good)" before expiring.<ref>Karl Vorländer, ''Immanuel Kant: Der Mann und das Werk'', Hamburg: Meiner, 1992, p. II 332.</ref> His unfinished final work was published as ''[[Opus Postumum]]''. Kant always cut a curious figure in his lifetime for his modest, rigorously scheduled habits, which have been referred to as clocklike. However, [[Heinrich Heine]] noted the magnitude of "his destructive, world-crushing thoughts" and considered him a sort of philosophical "executioner", comparing him to [[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]] with the observation that both men "represented in the highest the type of provincial bourgeois. Nature had destined them to weigh coffee and sugar, but Fate determined that they should weigh other things and placed on the scales of the one a king, on the scales of the other a god."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://philosophy.uchicago.edu/resources/files/On%20Kant.pdf |title=Heine on Immanuel Kant |access-date=10 July 2015 |archive-date=23 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123060538/http://philosophy.uchicago.edu/resources/files/On%20Kant.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

When his body was transferred to a new burial spot, his skull was measured during the exhumation and found to be larger than the average German male's with a "high and broad" forehead.<ref>''Examined Lives, From Socrates to Nietzsche'', James Miller p. 284</ref> His forehead has been an object of interest ever since it became well-known through his portraits: "In Döbler's portrait and in Kiefer's faithful if expressionistic reproduction of it — as well as in many of the other late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century portraits of Kant — the forehead is remarkably large and decidedly retreating. Was Kant's forehead shaped this way in these images because he was a philosopher, or, to follow the implications of Lavater's system, was he a philosopher because of the intellectual acuity manifested by his forehead? Kant and Johann Kaspar Lavater were correspondents on theological matters, and Lavater refers to Kant in his work "Physiognomic Fragments, for the Education of Human Knowledge and Love of People" (Leipzig & Winterthur, 1775–1778).<ref>''Immanuel Kant and the Bo(a)rders of Art History'' Mark Cheetham, in The Subjects of Art History: Historical Objects in Contemporary Perspectives, p. 16</ref>

[[File:Kant kaliningrad2.png|upright|thumb|Kant's tomb in [[Kaliningrad]], Russia]]
Kant's [[mausoleum]] adjoins the northeast corner of [[Königsberg Cathedral]] in [[Kaliningrad]], Russia. The mausoleum was constructed by the architect [[Friedrich Lahrs]] and was finished in 1924 in time for the bicentenary of Kant's birth. Originally, Kant was buried inside the cathedral, but in 1880 his remains were moved to a [[neo-Gothic]] chapel adjoining the northeast corner of the cathedral. Over the years, the chapel became dilapidated and was demolished to make way for the mausoleum, which was built on the same location.

The tomb and its mausoleum are among the few artifacts of German times preserved by the [[Soviets]] after they conquered and annexed the city.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/architectural-competition-held-to-rebuild-koenigsberg-city-center-a-980260.html|title=Resurrecting Königsberg: Russian City Looks to German Roots|last=Beyer|first=Susanne|date=2014-07-25|work=Spiegel Online|access-date=2018-02-03|archive-date=4 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180204192755/http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/architectural-competition-held-to-rebuild-koenigsberg-city-center-a-980260.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Today, many newlyweds bring flowers to the mausoleum. Artifacts previously owned by Kant, known as ''Kantiana'', were included in the [[Königsberg City Museum]]. However, the museum was destroyed during [[World War II]]. A replica of the statue of Kant that stood in German times in front of the main [[University of Königsberg]] building was donated by a German entity in the early 1990s and placed in the same grounds.

After the [[Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)|expulsion]] of [[Königsberg]]'s German population at the end of [[World War II]], the University of Königsberg where Kant taught was replaced by the Russian-language Kaliningrad State University, which appropriated the campus and surviving buildings. In 2005, the university was renamed [[Immanuel Kant State University of Russia]]. The name change was announced at a ceremony attended by President [[Vladimir Putin]] of Russia and Chancellor [[Gerhard Schröder]] of Germany, and the university formed a Kant Society, dedicated to the study of [[Kantianism]].

In late November 2018, his tomb and statue were vandalized with paint by unknown assailants, who also scattered leaflets glorifying [[Ruthenia|Rus']] and denouncing Kant as a "traitor". The incident is apparently connected with a recent vote to rename [[Khrabrovo Airport]], where Kant was in the lead for a while, prompting Russian nationalist resentment.<ref>{{cite news|last=Kishkovsky|first=Sophia|url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/kant-monument-splashed-with-pink-paint-in-russia|title=Kant monument splashed with pink paint in Kaliningrad|work=[[The Art Newspaper]]|date=28 November 2018|access-date=3 December 2018|archive-date=4 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181204101908/https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/kant-monument-splashed-with-pink-paint-in-russia|url-status=live}}</ref>

Return to Immanuel Kant.



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