Editing Immanuel Kant (section)

==Early life==
Immanuel Kant was born on 22 April 1724 into a [[Prussia]]n German family of [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] faith in [[Königsberg]], East Prussia. His mother, Anna Regina Reuter, was born in Königsberg to a father from [[Nuremberg]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.koenigsberg-is-dead.de/I_Cosmopolis.html |title=Cosmopolis |website=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> Her surname is sometimes erroneously given as Porter. Kant's father, Johann Georg Kant, was a German harness-maker from [[Klaipėda|Memel]],{{sfn|Kuehn|2001|p=26}} at the time Prussia's most northeastern city (now [[Klaipėda]], Lithuania). It is possible that the Kants got their name from the village of Kantvainiai (German: ''Kantwaggen'' – today part of [[Priekulė, Lithuania|Priekulė]]) and were of [[Kursenieki]] origin.<ref>R.K. Murray, "The Origin of Immanuel Kant's Family Name", ''Kantian Review'' '''13'''(1), March 2008, pp. 190–193.</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 baptized as Emanuel and later changed the spelling of his name to Immanuel after learning [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]].{{sfn|Kuehn|2001|p=26}} He was the fourth of nine children (six of whom reached adulthood).<ref>{{cite web |last=Haupt |first=Viktor |title=Rede des Bohnenkönigs – Von Petersburg bis Panama – Die Genealogie der Familie Kant |url=https://www.freunde-kants.com/kopie-von-kant-war-ostpreusse-1 |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 |website=freunde-kants.com |page=7 |language=de}}</ref> The Kant household stressed the [[Pietism|pietist]] values of religious devotion, humility, and a literal interpretation of the [[Bible]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last1=Pasternack |first1=Lawrence |title=Kant's Philosophy of Religion |date=2020 |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/kant-religion/ |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |edition=Spring 2020 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=25 February 2021 |last2=Fugate |first2=Courtney}}</ref> The young Immanuel's education was strict, punitive, and disciplinary and focused on Latin and religious instruction over mathematics and science.<ref>Kuehn 2001, p. 47.</ref> In his later years, Kant lived a strictly ordered life. It was said that neighbors would set their clocks by his daily walks. Kant considered marriage two times, first a widow and then a Westphalian girl, but both times waited too long.{{sfn|Kuehn|2001|p=177}} Though he never married, he seems to have had a rewarding social life; he was a popular teacher as well as a modestly successful author, even before starting on his major philosophical works.{{sfn|Kuehn|2001|p=169}}

===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 would later remain for the rest of his professional life.<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 he died 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 negatively. The theory of [[transcendental idealism]] that Kant later included in the ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]'' was developed partially in opposition to traditional idealism. Kant had contacts with students, colleagues, friends and diners who frequented the local [[Masonic lodge]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/9c2c6b4d-7481-4e73-b443-bf29054680c2/497779.pdf|title=Die Freimaurer im Alten Preußen 1738–1806|language=de|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201119104900/https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/9c2c6b4d-7481-4e73-b443-bf29054680c2/497779.pdf|archive-date=19 November 2020|url-status=live}}</ref>

His father's stroke and subsequent death in 1746 interrupted his studies. Kant left Königsberg shortly after August 1748;{{sfn|Kuehn|2001|p=94}} he would return there in August 1754.{{sfn|Kuehn|2001|p=98}} 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 1745–1747).<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>