MEMOIR OF KANT.

IMMANUEL KANT was born in Königsberg Königsberg was then the capital of East Prussia; it is now Kaliningrad, Russia. on April 22, 1724, thirteen years after Hume David Hume (1711–1776), a Scottish philosopher known for his skepticism, who famously influenced Kant. and fourteen years after Reid Thomas Reid (1710–1796), a Scottish philosopher and contemporary of Kant.. His family was of Scottish origin; his grandfather was one of the many Scotsmen who emigrated from Scotland at the end of the seventeenth century, some settling in Prussia and some in Sweden. It is said that Kant himself was the first to change the spelling of the family name from "Cant," which he did to avoid the German mispronunciation "Zant" In German, a 'C' at the beginning of a word is often pronounced like a 'Ts' or 'Z' sound..

His father was a saddler saddler: a craftsman who makes and repairs leather saddles and horse tack in modest, if not humble, circumstances. Both parents were persons of simple and sincere piety. Kant himself, although he did not later sympathize with their specific religious views, bears the strongest testimony to the practical effect of their religion on their lives.

"Although," he said, speaking warmly, "the religious ideas of that time, and the notions of what was called virtue and piety, were far from being distinct and satisfactory, yet such persons had the root of the matter in them. Let men decry Pietism Pietism: A movement within Lutheranism that emphasized individual devotion, ethical living, and personal religious experience over formal ritual or doctrine. as they may, the people who were in earnest with it were honorably distinguished. They possessed the highest that man can possess—that calm, that serenity, that inward peace which is not disturbed by any passion. No trouble, no persecution..."