Emanuel Swedenborg - Kant On Swedenborg

Kant On Swedenborg

In 1763, Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), then at the beginning of his career, was impressed by these accounts and made inquiries to find out if they were true. He also ordered all eight volumes of the expensive Arcana Cœlestia (Heavenly Arcana or Heavenly Mysteries). One Charlotte von Knobloch wrote Kant asking his opinion of Swedenborg’s psychic experiences Kant wrote a very affirmative reply, referring to Swedenborg's "miraculous" gift, and characterizing him as "reasonable, agreeable, remarkable and sincere" and "a scholar", in one of his letters to Mendelssohn, and expressing regret that he (Kant) had never met Swedenborg. An English friend who investigated the matter for Kant, including visiting Swedenborg’s home, found Swedenborg to be a "sensible, pleasant and openhearted" man and, here again, a scholar.

However, three years later, in 1766, Kant wrote and anonymously published a small book entitled Träume eines Geistersehers (Dreams of a Spirit-Seer) that was a scathing critique of Swedenborg and his writings. He termed Swedenborg a "spook hunter" "without official office or occupation" As rationale for his critique Kant said that he wanted to stop "ceaseless questioning” and inquiries about "Dreams" from "inquisitive" persons, “both known and unknown", and "importunate appeals from known and unknown friends". as well as from "moon calves" He also said he did not want to expose himself to ”mockery.” More significantly, he became concerned about being seen as an apologist for both Swedenborg and for Spiritism in the guise of the interest in Swedenborg., which might have damaged his career. It seems clear that Dreams was intended as a refutation of all such thinking. This left Kant in the ironic or hypocritical position of trying to free himself of ridicule while at the same time applying ridicule to Swedenborg .

However, there has long been a suspicion among some scholars that, despite "Dreams", Kant actually had a behind-the-scenes respect for Swedenborg. Certainly there were inconsistencies in Kant's handling of this issue. For instance,

(1) Kant's writing style was usually "complex, labored, dry ...and earnest" but in Dreams was often “playful, ironic and humorous".

(2) While he mocked Swedenborg in print, in the preserved notes of Kant's lectures on metaphysics taken by a student named Herder, Kant treated Swedenborg with respect, "not to be sneezed at". At one point, Herder’s notes term Swedenborg's visions as "quite sublime".

(3) Kant's friend Moses Mendelssohn thought there was a "joking pensiveness" in "Dreams" that sometimes left the reader in doubt as to whether "Dreams" was meant to make "metaphysics laughable or spirit-seeking credible".

(4) In a one of his letters to Mendelssohn, Kant refers to "Dreams" less-than-enthusiastically as a "desultory little essay".

For more examples of these discrepancies, see Heron's list in the original and with the Dole corrections

Finally, a case has been made that Kant wrote "Dreams" before, not after, the Knobloch letter and that this was accomplished by accidentally or deliberately falsifying the dates of the documents involved, notably that of the Knobloch letter. This alteration, if true, would strengthen the case for Swedenborg’s work being viewed by Kant, in the last analysis, positively. However, the fact of the matter is difficult to determine since the key date involved is that of the original of the Knobloch letter, which is lost.