Editing Kai Nielsen (philosopher) (section)

==Biography==
Born on May 15, 1926, in [[Marshall, Michigan]], near [[Battle Creek, Michigan]], Kai Edward Nielsen was raised in [[Moline, Illinois]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kai Edward Nielsen|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100234294|access-date=2021-04-08|website=Oxford Reference|language=en}}</ref>

His father was from [[Copenhagen]], Denmark, and spoke Danish and Swedish.<ref name="A Life In Philosophy">{{cite web |last1=Seymour |first1=Michel |title=An Exchange with Kai Nielsen - Part 1: A Life in Philosophy |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0mZdCYiGNQ |website=YouTube |access-date=7 October 2023}}</ref> As he said about his father later, "My father was a Danish immigrant who came to New York City when he was fifteen. He didn’t know a word of English then. They put him into the first grade in school and he hated it. What could he do? He couldn’t speak any English and here he was with these little English-speaking kids. He was fifteen and they were five or six. He left school and just sort of made it on his own, as you could still do then."<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |title=Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will: The Political Philosophy of Kai Nielsen |publisher=University of Calgary Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-55238-530-2 |editor-last=Rondel |editor-first=David |publication-date=2012 |pages=401–435, "An Interview with Kai Nielsen on Political Philosophy" |editor-last2=Sager |editor-first2=Alex |editor-last3=Nielsen |editor-first3=Kai}}</ref>

His mother was American but according to Nielsen she "was Métis. Her mother came from Lac St. Jean, though she herself never spoke French. Her mother immigrated early to the United States before she could speak."<ref name=":2" />  He told the following story to illustrate the difference between his mother and his father: "A few years before the Second World War, a friend of my father, who was his subordinate in an insurance company where my father was a superintendent, was invited to our summer home. This was during the Joe Louis/Max Schmeling boxing match. We were at our summer house, which had a big American flag on one wall and a big Danish flag on the other. This friend of my father, whom I called Uncle Percy, began to talk about Hitler – the Louis/Schmeling fight was a big German-American affair – and he said, “Well, there was one good thing Hitler did. He got after the Jews.” My mother got up and walked out of the room and, after he had left, she told my father to never let Uncle Percy into the house again."<ref name=":2" />