What is it about?
This essay examines in detail a scene in the second volume of Hippel's comic novel from 1779. To gain admittance to the University of Königsberg, the hero Alexander undergoes an examination by a figure called "Professor Grandfather," based on Immanuel Kant.
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Why is it important?
Hippel based this section of the novel on notes students had taken of Kant's lectures. Writing anonymously, Hippel reworked them slightly into narrative form. In so doing, he attracted attention to views that Kant himself would only express later in the Critique of Pure Reason.
Perspectives
This essay establishes for the first time the provenance of the lectures Hippel used: Kant's Lectures on Philosophical Encyclopedia, 1772-73.
Hamilton Beck
Moscow University of Information Technology
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This page is a summary of: Kant and the Novel. A Study of the Examination Scene in Hippel’s “Lebensläufe nach aufsteigender Linie”, Kant-Studien, January 1983, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/kant.1983.74.3.271.
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