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Description
Portraits of Kant is a rare collection of first-hand accounts of the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, arguably one of the most important thinkers of the modern age.
Beginning with his childhood and early days as a student, this three volume work is constructed from the observations of his family, friends, colleagues, and other contemporaries. Across more than 160 selected texts, Steve Naragon traces Kant's progress from his childhood and student days to his old age, death, and posthumous memorials to his life and thought.
Volume I introduces Königsberg – the city where Kant spent his entire life – and collects together observations and records of Kant's family life and childhood, his studies at the Gymnasium and university, and his years spent as a Hofmeister in the Prussian countryside.
Volume II presents Kant's life in the university as a popular professor with observations by his students and others visiting his classroom. There are accounts of Kant's home life and his famous dinner parties, his daily walks and travels within Prussia, and his many social engagements, along with his thoughts on women and marriage, the arts, religion and Judaism, and the French revolution.
Volume III focuses on Kant's work as a scholar and author, along with his growing celebrity and the many visitors drawn to Königsberg to meet him, concluding with his final years of increasing debility and death.
Nearly all of the source material is appearing for the first time in English, with extracts from letters, diaries, and journals of the day, as well as longer biographical sketches and memoirs. This one-of-kind biographical resource, told through the words of those who knew and argued with him, is accompanied by an introduction, commentaries and packed with maps and illustrations.
For anyone interested in Kant or the history of modern European philosophy, it brings 18th-century Germany to life and offers new perspectives into the life and character of one of the world's most influential individuals.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Note on the Text
Biographical List of Contributors
Timeline of Kant's Friends in Königsberg
Volume I: Kant as Child and Student
Introduction
Part 1. Sketches of Kant's Life
1. Three Early Sketches and an Obituary
2. Memorial Address
3. Main Biographies of 1804
4. Shorter Sketches
Part 2. Growing Up in Königsberg
5. 18th Century Königsberg
6. Kant's Family
7. Kant's Childhood
Part 3. Kant as Student
8. Pupil
9. University Student
10. Hofmeister
11. Kant's Character
Volume II: Kant as Professor and Socialite
Introduction
Part 4. Kant at the University
1. Becoming a Professor
2. Renting Rooms
3. Kant's Classroom
4. Duties at the University
Part 5. Kant at Home
5. House
6. Servants
7. Daily Routine
8. Dinners with Kant
9. Food & Drink
Part 6. Kant in the World
10. Daily Walks
11. Travels
12. Friends
13. Kant in Society
Part 7. Topics of Conversation
14. Women and Marriage
15. Music and the Arts
16. Religion
17. Jews and Judaism
18. Revolutionary France
Volume III: Kant as Philosopher and World-Citizen
Introduction
Part 8. Kant as Scholar
1. Writing
2. Reading
3. Other Sciences
Part 9. Kant as Celebrity
4. Visiting Kant
5. Fichte's Visit (1791)
6. Abegg's Visit (1798)
7. Promoters and Admirers
Part 10. Kant as Human Being
8. Kant's Appearance
9. Kant's Body
10. Old Age
11. Kant's End
12. Remembering Kant
Bibliography of Kant's Writings
References: Source and Secondary Materials
Name Index
Subject Index
Product details

Published | 20 Feb 2025 |
---|---|
Format | Hardback - Pack |
Edition | 1st |
ISBN | 9781350116511 |
Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
Illustrations | 90 B&W illustrations |
Dimensions | 0 x 0 mm |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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If one has an interest in Kant's life and scientific development it's now easy do to so: following Steven Naragon's new book based on contempory illustrative materials: A completely new way to Kant as a philosopher and his personal surrounding.
Werner Stark, Honorary Professor, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany
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Human beings, Kant reminds us in his third Critique, possess a "discursive, image-dependent understanding." Unlike God, we need images in order to understand something, and this maxim would also seem to apply to attempts to understand Kant's philosophy. Steve Naragon's Portraits of Kant fulfills this task admirably, providing readers with an extremely rich collection of both pictorial and written images of the Sage of Koenigsberg at different stages of his extraordinary life.
Robert Louden, Professor of Philosophy, University of Southern Maine, USA
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Filled with captivating images, pictures, maps, and indeed excerpts from letters, diaries, newspapers, biographies, and memoirs, the three volumes of Portraits of Kant depict the full life of the cosmopolitan philosopher from Königsberg in fascinating detail.
Robert Clewis, Professor of Philosophy, Gwynedd Mercy University, USA