Ikuo Ishii, "Kant's Life: The Gigantic Reservoir of Philosophy" Summary and Impressions - Recommended Kant biography to learn about Kant's personality and historical background.
I am pleased to present "Kant's Life: The Giant Reservoir of Philosophy" by Ikuo Ishii, published by Suiyosha in 2019.
Let's take a quick look at the book.
Contents (from "BOOK" database)
What kind of a man was Kant, the author of the Critique of Pure Reason, the greatest philosophical book of all time? Kant was a great man who inherited the Viking spirit as a boy, was the first in the world to teach "geography" as a subject, advocated the "theory of nebulae" in astronomy as a young man, and called for perpetual peace from his mature years to his later years. This is a lively portrayal of his life, which has been called a reservoir of philosophy. The birth of a groundbreaking biography that enables readers to understand Kant's philosophy through a story.
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This biography is a great introduction to Kant. The book gives a clear explanation of who Kant was in the first place, what kind of environment he was born in, and what his life was like. In any case, it is an easy read.
Kant has the image of a difficult philosopher. I have tried many times to read Kant's writings, but each time I bounced back and failed.
Anyway, it is difficult to understand! Canto was a huge wall for me as well.
But even so, I wondered if there was any way I could learn a little bit about Kant, so I picked up this book.
And this book met my expectations beautifully.
We inevitably view Kant as a difficult philosopher.
But to my surprise when I read the book, Kant was also an astronomer who proposed a cosmology that people at the time would have looked up to.
And the fact that he loved reading "travelogues" all his life and knew more about the geography and culture of the world than anyone else, even though he hardly ever left the city of Königsberg.
It is precisely this kind of Kant that I was most impressed by in the book, which in the text speaks of the following.
One day, a student asked, "What should I read to study philosophy?" To which Kant replied, "Read the 'Travels.
The startled student asked, "What I asked was a study of philosophy," bulking up.
It's a 'travelogue' because it's a philosophy. It is important to know about people everywhere in the world. To know specifically what man is is the starting point of all learning.
The following story is also well known.
It just so happened that a merchant returning from the Orient had a talk with Kant.
I was so surprised that Canto knew so much about the situation in China that I asked him a question.
When did you return from China?
China was already sitting firmly in Kant's mind.
Kant knew surprisingly detailed things about any country in the world without having to go to that country, to the amazement of the locals.
Another day.
The 1773 Boston Tea Party incident (in which radicals opposed to the Tea Ordinance enacted by the British government dumped a British ship's cargo of tea overboard in Boston Harbor) made headlines.
Canto, who was present, supported the actions of the local American radicals.
One Englishman stood up.
'I will not tolerate any ill-will towards the British Home Countries. Let's duel!"
It is right to seek freedom in each land. It is not good to be oppressed by coercion from the outside. I support the independence of each people.
The Englishman was so impressed by Kant's unflappable attitude that he withdrew from the duel.
After this discussion, Kant and this Englishman became the best of friends. (omitted).
Kant was always fond of "travelogues".
During the eight years I was a tutor, I read "travelogues" and "discernment books" from the homes of aristocrats and ministers. He also read books by Dutch geographers.
For a time, he also worked as the deputy director of the university library, but even after becoming a university teacher, he continued to read "travelogues" and use books from the university library.
The library had various magazines from Hamburg, Leipzig, Paris, Stockholm, etc. Among the magazines were interesting stories from all over the world. Kant was happy to read them and used them in his lectures at the university.
Even though Kant had never traveled abroad, he was able to give a tangible picture of a place. He had a library of about 300 books, most of which were "travelogues. During his 42 years as a teacher at Königsberg University, Kant taught geography every summer semester without fail.
It has been said that "Kant was the world's first geography teacher."
On the one hand, Kant stretched the wings of his imagination to the edge of the universe, and on the other hand, he kept an eye on the lives of people in every corner of the earth.
Suiyosha, Ikuo Ishii, Kant's Life: The Gigantic Reservoir of Philosophy, p. 113-117
The book gives a sense of an overwhelming scale that goes far beyond that of a mere philosopher.
Above all, the author's narrative is excellent and draws you in. It is very gratifying to learn about Kant in such a dramatic way. It was a completely different reading experience from the Kant books that I used to read with wrinkled brows.
I highly recommend this work as an introduction to Kant. It was just easy to read and interesting.
Although one cannot judge everything about Kant from this book alone, it is a very useful book to change one's image of Kant as an esoteric philosopher. It was a very interesting work that gave me an insight into Kant's personality. I highly recommend it.
The above is "Ikuo Ishii, "Kant's Life: The Giant Reservoir of Philosophy," a recommended Kant biography.
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