Immanuel 'the Königsberg clock' Kant (2015)

(versobooks.com)

35 points | by rishabhd 5 days ago ago

8 comments

  • libraryofbabel 2 days ago ago

    > Having been born in Königsberg in 1724, he never left the small German city, dying there in 1804 aged 79 never having once gone further than the city’s limits.

    Totally false! Slander! He once went as far as the village of Jarnołtowo, a whole 60 miles from Königsberg![0]

    But yeah. Maybe not one of history’s greatest travelers.

    [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarno%C5%82towo

  • inasio 2 days ago ago

    Reminds me of Emilio Salgari (late 19th century, Italy's Jules Verne), one of my favorite authors growing up. He has many books on Malaysian pirates, Wild west cowboys (he's apparently considered the grandfather of the spaghetti western), adventures in India, etc. Always thought he must have been an adventurer, or at least a sailor. He never left Verona.

    • pseudohadamard a day ago ago

      This persistent until quite recently. My neighbour told me his mother never travelled more than 15km from the town where she was born. Apart from a pilgrimage to Lourdes my grandmother would have been about the same.

      • cafard a day ago ago

        The FBI used to like to hire the young from southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina, and such places: generally the kids wouldn't have traveled at all far from their birthplaces, and so security checks were that much easier.

  • svat 2 days ago ago

    > We should note – without seeing it as physiologically symbolic of their respective philosophies – that Kant was constipated, while Nietzsche suffered from compulsive vomiting.

    To the contrary, I'm pretty sure it is more than symbolic. Surely it matches their temperament (respectively) and thereby their philosophies.

    • routmac a day ago ago

      Not so regular after all eh?