In 1732, at the age of eight, Kant was sent to the Collegium Fredericianum, a Pietist school directed by Franz Albert Schultz, the Kant family's pastor. When Kant was thirteen, his mother caught rheumatic fever and died.

When he was sixteen years old, Kant entered the Albertus University of Königsberg. Here Kant enrolled as a student of philosophy. He studied for a while, until 1746, when his father died. Kant was now without financial support and without employment. He left Königsberg to take up a position as family tutor. After a while, and a couple of different families, Kant became tutor for Count Kayserling, and his family.

In 1755, Kant was qualified to start his life work, and he taught as a Privatdozent (a lecturer that receives no payment for his lectures, except that of which the attendees pay) between 1755 and 1770. Kant was a marvelous speaker, and may times the students would arrive early just to get a good seat. In 1766, he was appointed second librarian of the Royal Library, a government position with a salary. Three years later, he considered accepting a professorship in logic and metaphysics at Erlangen. Meanwhile, a mathematics chair in Königsberg became open, and Dr. Buck took over that chair, which left open the logic and metaphysics chair, which was given to Kant.

In the August of 1770, Kant read his dissertation in Latin. Most thought it was pivotal work, the best written yet. Kant then wrote out what he called, "the proper procedure for metaphysics." And in 1781 his rivoting book was published, it was called Critique of Pure Reason. It was widely accepted, but it took some time to catch on because it was longwinded (about seven-hundred pages), as well as hard to read. However, in the next ten year, he wrote nothing that was substantial, and historians called this time, his silent decade.

The next several decades were hard for Kant. The enlightened king Fredrick the Great died, and is illiberal nephwe, Fredrick William the second took the throne. King William the second took it upon himself to censor all writings which made it tough on Kant. But, Kant survived and published his four book series called Religion as well as some other pieces. Fredrick sent Kant a letter that told him that he was "distorting and depreciating many of the basic teaching of the Holy scrpture" and he was to produce a "conscientious vindication" of his actions. Kant wrote a letter back to the king telling the king that not to fall under suspicion, he would not lecture or write about anything religious. And until the king's death in 1797, Kant kept his promise, publishing only non-religious pieces.

In late 1803, it was no longer safe for Kant to be alone, and his youngest sister came to live with him. On February 12 ,1804 he died, and his final words were "It is good."