[1] "Kansas"--in archaic variants of spelling and pronunciation,
"Kansaw," and still called, locally and colloquially, the "Kaw."
[2] Before Kansas City, first Old Franklin (opposite Boonville), then
Ft. Osage, Liberty, Sibley, Lexington, Independence and Westport had
successively been abandoned as terminals, as the transfer-point from
boat to prairie caravan was moved steadily up the Missouri. Whisky,
groceries, prints and notions were staples sent to Santa Fe; wool,
buffalo robes and dried buffalo meat, Mexican silver coin, gold and
silver dust and ore came in return. In 1860 the trade employed 3000
wagons and 7000 men, and amounted to millions of dollars in value.
KANSK, a town of eastern Siberia, in the government of Yeniseisk, 151 m.
by rail E. of Krasnoyarsk, on the Kan River, a tributary of the Yenisei,
and on the Siberian highway. Pop. (1897), 7504. It is the chief town of
a district in which gold is found, but lies on low ground subject to
inundation by the river.
KAN-SUH, a north-western province of China, bounded N. by Mongolia, E.
by Shen-si, S. by Szech'uen, W. by Tibet and N.W. by Turkestan. The
boundary on the N. remains undefined, but the province may be said to
occupy the territory lying between 32 deg. 30'40 deg. N., and 108 deg.
and 98 deg. 20' E., and to contain about 260,000 sq. m. The population
is estimated at 9,800,000. Western Kan-suh is mountainous, and largely a
wilderness of sand and snow, but east of the Hwang-ho the country is
cultivated. The principal river is the Hwang-ho, and in the mountains to
the south of Lan-chow Fu rises the Wei-ho, which traverses Shen-si and
flows into the Hwang-ho at Tung-kwan. The chief products of Kan-suh are
cloth, horse hides, a kind of curd like butter which is known by the
Mongols under the name of _wuta_, musk, plums, onions, dates, sweet
melons and medicines. (See CHINA.)
KANT, IMMANUEL (1724-1804), German philosopher, was born at Konigsberg
on the 22nd of April 1724. His grandfather was an emigrant from
Scotland, and the name Cant is not uncommon in the north of Scotland,
whence the family is said to have come. His father was a saddler in
Konigsberg, then a stronghold of Pietism, to the strong influence of
which Kant was subjected in his early years. In his tenth year he was
entered at the Collegium Fredericianum with the definite view of
studying theology. His inclination at this time was towards classics,
and he was recognized, with his school-fellow, David Ruhnken, as among
the most promising classical scholars of the college. His taste for the
greater Latin authors, particularly Lucretius, was never lost, and he
acquired at school an unusual facility in Latin composition. With Greek
authors he does not appear to have been equally familiar. During his
university course, which began in 1740, Kant was principally attracted
towards mathematics and physics. The lectures on classics do not seem to
have satisfied him, and, though he attended courses on theology, and
even preached on one or two occasions, he appears finally to have given
up the intention of entering the Church. The last years of his
university studies were much disturbed by poverty. His father died in
1746, and for nine years he was compelled to earn his own living as a
private tutor. Although he disliked the life and was not specially
qualified for it--as he used to say regarding the excellent precepts of
his _Padagogik_, he was never able to apply them--yet he added to his
other accomplishments a grace and polish which he displayed ever
afterwards to a degree somewhat unusual in a philosopher by profession.
In 1755 Kant became tutor in the family of Count Kayserling. By the
kindness of a friend named Richter, he was enabled to resume his
university career, and in the autumn of that year he graduated as doctor
and qualified as privatdocent. For fifteen years he continued to labour
in this position, his fame as writer and lecturer steadily increasing.
Though twice he failed to obtain a professorship at Konigsberg, he
steadily refused appointments elsewhere. The only academic preferment
received by him during the lengthy probation was the post of
under-librarian (1766). His lectures, at first mainly upon physics,
gradually expanded until nearly all descriptions of philosophy were
included under them.
In 1770 he obtained the chair of logic and metaphysics at Konigsberg,
and delivered as his inaugural address the dissertation _De mundi
sensibilis et intelligibilis forma et principiis_. Eleven years later
appeared the _Kritik of Pure Reason_, the work towards which he had been
steadily advancing, and of which all his later writings are
developments. In 1783 he published the _Prolegomena_, intended as an
introduction to the _Kritik_, which had been found to stand in need of
some explanatory comment. A second edition of the _Kritik_, with some
modifications, appeared in 1787, after which it remained unaltered.
In spite of its frequent obscurity, its novel terminology, and its
declared opposition to prevailing systems, the Kantian philosophy made
rapid progress in Germany. In the course of ten or twelve years from the
publication of the _Kritik of Pure Reason_, it was expounded in all the
leading universities, and it even penetrated into the schools of the
Church of Rome. Such men as J. Schulz in Konigsberg, J. G. Kiesewetter
in Berlin, Jakob in Halle, Born and A. L. Heydenreich in Leipzig, K. L.
Reinhold and E. Schmid in Jena, Buhle in Gottingen, Tennemann in
Marburg, and Snell in Giessen, with many others, made it the basis of
their philosophical teaching, while theologians like Tieftrunk,
Staudlin, and Ammon eagerly applied it to Christian doctrine and
morality. Young men flocked to Konigsberg as to a shrine of philosophy.
The Prussian Government even undertook the expense of their support.
Kant was hailed by some as a second Messiah. He was consulted as an
oracle on all questions of casuistry--as, for example, on the lawfulness
of inoculation for the small-pox. This universal homage for a long time
left Kant unaffected; it was only in his later years that he spoke of
his system as the limit of philosophy, and resented all further
progress. He still pursued his quiet round of lecturing and authorship,
and contributed from time to time papers to the literary journals. Of
these, among the most remarkable was his review of Herder's _Philosophy
of History_, which greatly exasperated that author, and led to a violent
act of retaliation some years after in his _Metakritik of Pure Reason_.
Schiller at this period in vain sought to engage Kant upon his _Horen_.
He remained true to the _Berlin Journal_, in which most of his
criticisms appeared.
In 1792 Kant, in the full height of his reputation, was involved in a
collision with the Government on the question of his religious
doctrines. Naturally his philosophy had excited the declared opposition
of all adherents of historical Christianity, since its plain tendency
was towards a moral rationalism, and it could not be reconciled to the
literal doctrines of the Lutheran Church. It would have been much better
to permit his exposition of the philosophy of religion to enjoy the same
literary rights as his earlier works, since Kant could not be
interdicted without first silencing a multitude of theologians who were
at least equally separated from positive Christianity. The Government,
however, judged otherwise; and after the first part of his book, _On
Religion within the Limits of Reason alone_, had appeared in the _Berlin
Journal_, the publication of the remainder, which treats in a more
rationalizing style of the peculiarities of Christianity, was forbidden.
Kant, thus shut out from Berlin, availed himself of his local privilege,
and, with the sanction of the theological faculty of his own university,
published the full work in Konigsberg. The Government, probably
influenced as much by hatred and fear of the French Revolution, of which
Kant was supposed to be a partisan, as by love of orthodoxy, resented
the act; and a secret cabinet order was received by him intimating the
displeasure of the king, Frederick William II., and exacting a pledge
not to lecture or write at all on religious subjects in future. With
this mandate Kant, after a struggle, complied, and kept his engagement
till 1797, when the death of the king, according to his construction of
his promise, set him free. This incident, however, produced a very
unfavourable effect on his spirits. He withdrew in 1794 from society;
next year he gave up all his classes but one public lecture on logic or
metaphysics; and in 1797, before the removal of the interdict on his
theological teaching, he ceased altogether his public labours, after an
academic course of forty-two years. He previously, in the same year,
finished his treatises on the _Metaphysics of Ethics_, which, with his
_Anthropology_, completed in 1798, were the last considerable works that
he revised with his own hand. His _Lectures on Logic_, on _Physical
Geography_, on _Paedagogics_, were edited during his lifetime by his
friends and pupils. By way of asserting his right to resume theological
disquisition, he also issued in 1798 his _Strife of the Faculties_, in
which all the strongest points of his work on religion were urged
afresh, and the correspondence that had passed between himself and his
censors was given to the world.
From the date of his retirement from the chair Kant declined in
strength, and gave tokens of intellectual decay. His memory began to
fail, and a large work at which he wrought night and day, on the
connexion between physics and metaphysics, was found to be only a
repetition of his already published doctrines. After 1802, finding
himself attacked with a weakness in the limbs attended with frequent
fits of falling, he mitigated the Spartan severity of his life, and
consented to receive medical advice. A constant restlessness oppressed
him; his sight gave way; his conversation became an extraordinary
mixture of metaphors; and it was only at intervals that gleams of his
former power broke out, especially when some old chord of association
was struck in natural science or physical geography. A few days before
his decease, with a great effort he thanked his medical attendant for
his visits in the words, "I have not yet lost my feeling for humanity."
On the 12th of February 1804 he died, having almost completed his
eightieth year. His stature was small, and his appearance feeble. He was
little more than five feet high; his breast was almost concave, and,
like Schleiermacher, he was deformed in the right shoulder. His senses
were quick and delicate; and, though of weak constitution, he escaped
by strict regimen all serious illness.
His life was arranged with mechanical regularity; and, as he never
married, he kept the habits of his studious youth to old age. His
man-servant, who awoke him summer and winter at five o'clock, testified
that he had not once failed in thirty years to respond to the call.
After rising he studied for two hours, then lectured other two, and
spent the rest of the forenoon, till one, at his desk. He then dined at
a restaurant, which he frequently changed, to avoid the influx of
strangers, who crowded to see and hear him. This was his only regular
meal; and he often prolonged the conversation till late in the
afternoon. He then walked out for at least an hour in all weathers, and
spent the evening in lighter reading, except an hour or two devoted to
the preparation of his next day's lectures, after which he retired
between nine and ten to rest. In his earlier years he often spent his
evenings in general society, where his knowledge and conversational
talents made him the life of every party. He was especially intimate
with the families of two English merchants of the name of Green and
Motherby, where he found many opportunities of meeting ship-captains,
and other travelled persons, and thus gratifying his passion for
physical geography. This social circle included also the celebrated J.
G. Hamann, the friend of Herder and Jacobi, who was thus a mediator
between Kant and these philosophical adversaries.
Kant's reading was of the most extensive and miscellaneous kind. He
cared comparatively little for the history of speculation, but his
acquaintance with books of science, general history, travels and belles
lettres was boundless. He was well versed in English literature, chiefly
of the age of Queen Anne, and had read English philosophy from Locke to
Hume, and the Scottish school. He was at home in Voltaire and Rousseau,
but had little or no acquaintance with the French sensational
philosophy. He was familiar with all German literature up to the date of
his _Kritik_, but ceased to follow it in its great development by Goethe
and Schiller. It was his habit to obtain books in sheets from his
publishers Kanter and Nicolovius; and he read over for many years all
the new works in their catalogue, in order to keep abreast of universal
knowledge. He was fond of newspapers and works on politics; and this was
the only kind of reading that could interrupt his studies in philosophy.
As a lecturer, Kant avoided altogether that rigid style in which his
books were written. He sat behind a low desk, with a few jottings on
slips of paper, or textbooks marked on the margin, before him, and
delivered an extemporaneous address, opening up the subject by partial
glimpses, and with many anecdotes or familiar illustrations, till a
complete idea of it was presented. His voice was extremely weak, but
sometimes rose into eloquence, and always commanded perfect silence.
Though kind to his students, he refused to remit their fees, as this, he
thought, would discourage independence. It was another principle that
his chief exertions should be bestowed on the intermediate class of
talent, as the geniuses would help themselves, and the dunces were
beyond remedy.
Simple, honourable, truthful, kind-hearted and high-minded as Kant was
in all moral respects, he was somewhat deficient in the region of
sentiment. He had little enthusiasm for the beauties of nature, and
indeed never sailed out into the Baltic, or travelled more than 40 miles
from Konigsberg. Music he disregarded, and all poetry that was more than
sententious prose. His ethics have been reproached with some justice as
setting up too low an ideal for the female sex. Though faithful in a
high degree to the duties of friendship, he could not bear to visit his
friends in sickness, and after their death he repressed all allusion to
their memory. His engrossing intellectual labours no doubt tended
somewhat to harden his character; and in his zeal for rectitude of
purpose he forgot the part which affection and sentiment must ever play
in the human constitution.
On the 12th of February 1904, the hundredth anniversary of Kant's death,
a Kantian society (_Kantgesellschaft_) was formed at Halle under the
leadership of Professor H. Vaihinger to promote Kantian studies. In 1909
it had an annual membership of 191; it supports the periodical
_Kantstudien_ (founded 1896; see BIBLIOGRAPHY, _ad init._).