"Those who philosophize correctly practice dying and death."
— Socrates, PhaedoWhat does it mean to live a philosophical life until the very end? In this remarkable portrait of Immanuel Kant's final years, Thomas De Quincey explores how one of history's greatest thinkers confronted old age, decline, and mortality.
Philosophers are often remembered only by their ideas and dates: born here, died there. Yet the closing chapter of a life can reveal as much as a lifetime of writings. Drawing on firsthand accounts of Kant's last years, De Quincey presents an intimate picture of the philosopher's daily routines, habits, friendships, and gradual physical deterioration in the face of an incurable illness.
Readers encounter not only the author of Critique of Pure Reason, but the man himself: taking tea and tobacco in the morning, drinking coffee in the evening, and hosting lively dinner gatherings, platonic banquets of sorts, that brought together guests from diverse backgrounds in a spirit of conversation and intellectual exchange.
Rich in anecdote and observation, Last Days of Immanuel Kant offers a rare glimpse into the private life of the leading figure of the German Enlightenment. Like Plato's account of Socrates' final days, it is both a meditation on philosophy and a moving study of how a great mind met the end of life.