Kant as a Professor: Some Lessons for Today’s Intellectuals

Abstract

The thoughts of every great philosopher is measured and represented by the history of his social background. It is indeed, more appropriate particularly in the case of a great philosopher like Immanuel Kant to single out for special recognition the outstanding characteristics of his early life on his career as a professor of philosophy. Kant has no other biography than the story of his philosophizing. His philosophical ideas were undoubtedly a reflection or product of his youth and parental upbringing in which he immersed himself with unwavering discipline in an almost superhuman exclusiveness. According to one account, Kant’s critical epistemology is significant because it struggles hard to discern and give full recognition of the elements of truth in all its approaches. Anyone who takes the trouble to grapple with Kant’s biography would see that he represents a good example of one whose parental upbringing influenced his intellectual thought. In this paper, it is our purpose not only to demonstrate the correlation between Kant’s biography and his intellectual development as a professor but also to show what philosophers and non specialists alike can today learn from Kant’s social background to his becoming one of the leading giants of eighteenth century philosophy. What follows is a testimony of how well Kant achieved this purpose.