Mother’s knee

How men commonly come by their principles. This, however strange it may seem, is that which every day’s experience confirms; and will not, perhaps, appear so wonderful, if we consider the ways and steps by which it is brought about; and how really it may come to pass, that doctrines that have been derived from no better original than the superstition of a nurse, or the authority of an old woman, may, by length of time and consent of neighbours, grow up to the dignity of principles in religion or morality. [Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book I, Chapter II, “No Innate Principles,” par. 22.]

Cf. Wittgenstein on intuition: imbibed at mother’s knee… The content of male morality is indeed rooted in our mother’s monitions, but what becomes its motive stems from somewhere else very distant from her. Unlike the boy, the girl has not this need for grounding in abstraction. Her failing, if it is that, is to trust material authority.

So we find on Kant’s tombstone the words from the Critique of Practical Reason: “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.” And Kant said, “I will never forget my mother, for she implanted and nurtured in me the first germ of goodness; she opened my heart to the impressions of nature; she awakened and furthered my concepts, and her doctrines have had a continual and beneficial influence in my life.” No one else in Kant’s life compared. Anna Regina’s first germ, born of good sense and necessity, however, grew into a plant whose highest tendrils sought starry purchase. It is important to be reminded of where Kant came from especially because of how far he strayed.

For the biographical detail on Kant, see Schönfeld, Martin, “Kant’s Philosophical Development”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2003 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).