I n order to encounter Immanuel Kant, one of the most celebrat- ed philosophers in history, you had to ful l at least one condition. Being a contemporary of his is, of course, implied. That necessary condition is to travel to the then East Prussian city of King’s Moun- tain (Königsberg), which is today’s Kaliningrad, the Russian city on the three-way border between Russia, Poland and Lithuania. Why was this a necessary condition? Because Kant never left his homeland. He was born there in 1724, educated there, worked as a li- brarian, a private tutor and university professor, and died there in 1804. Kant’s life was so monotonous that his fellow citizens set their clocks by him. Once he started working at the university, his daily routine looked the same every day. He woke before ve in the morning and spent an hour enjoying tea and tobacco, considering all the things he had to do that day. Then he spent an hour preparing for classes, which began at seven or eight in the morning. Lectures lasted two hours. When he completed his work at the college, he devoted himself to writing until lunchtime. He always had lunch with company, and those meals last- ed several hours, because Kant liked to spend time in conversation. He would then take a one-hour walk, then spend the evenings read- ing and in contemplation. He retired for the evening at ten. Unlike Kant’s life, that of his contemporary, Dositej Obradović, was very exciting and diverse. He became a monk very young, then left the monastery and began travelling. He travelled around Asia Minor and much of Europe, and on those trips learned languages and studied theology, literature, philosophy etc. He also worked as a private tu- tor. Dositej’s countrymen mounted an uprising against Ottoman rule in 1804, and he supported them in their ght for liberation, gathering aid, participating in diplomatic missions etc. He soon arrived in Bel- grade, settled there and participated in the political life of Serbia, ac- tively working to enlighten the people, until his death in 1811. Dositej spent several years living, studying and working in Ger- man-speaking lands. He initially learned the German language in Vi- enna, then later studied philosophy in Halle and Leipzig. He arrived in Prussia in 1782, and found himself in Kant’s immediate vicinity in 1788. Dositej then visited Kant’s homeland, and we know this because he wrote the VII letter of his work ‘Life and Connection’ in Königsberg. Did he encounter the famous philosopher on that occasion? There is no evidence that the most prominent German philoso- pher and most in uential Serbian thinker of the 18 th century ever met. And it is certain that no such evidence will emerge. Why did Serbia’s greatest educator of the modern age, the ‘Serbian Socrates’, as he was dubbed, miss out on the opportunity to meet the most important philosopher of the Enlightenment? Why didn’t he cross paths with the author who, among other things, de ned the very essence of enlight- enment and who, crucially for Dositej, raised the idea of free thinking to the level of a principle? Did Dositej know anything about Kant at all? In the year during which Dositej was resident in Königsberg, Kant published – seven years after his famous Critique of Pure Reason – his Critique of Practical Rea- son, in which he exposed his ethical teaching. In 1788 he became the Why did Serbia’s greatest educator of the modern age, the ‘Serbian Socrates’, as he was dubbed, miss out on the opportunity to meet the most important philosopher of the Enlightenment? Why didn’t he cross paths with the author who, among other things, de ned the very essence of enlightenment and who, crucially for Dositej, raised the idea of free thinking to the level of a principle?
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