Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) lived a life of extreme uninterest. He grew up in the Prussian city of Königsberg, and never left its walled perimeter. So entrenched was his bachelor existence that the town's folk set their clocks by his afternoon walk (indeed, it is fabled that the city was thrown into turmoil when one day, so engrossed in Rousseau's Social Contract, he failed to emerge). And yet for many, Kant is the greatest philosopher of all time. Although his ...