Christian Jakob Kraus

Christian Jakob Kraus ( born July 27, 1753 Osterode, East Prussia, † August 25, 1807 in Königsberg ) was a German philosopher and economist was in the late period of the Enlightenment.

Life and work

His father Johann Kraus (1712-1777) was first company surgeon, later city surgeon, chirurgus and also councilor in Osterode, his mother Catharina († 1771) was a born Buchholz, and daughter of the mayor.

He is likely to have enrolled on April 13, 1771 as a student of theology at the Albertus University of Königsberg. In 1773, he joined the faculty of law. Already at baseline in 1771 Kraus heard the lectures of Immanuel Kant By early death of his two parents Kraus was since 1770 an orphan and thereby since 1773 on the financial support of his maternal uncle, the priest instructed Buchholz. In addition, he earned part of his living expenses while studying with a private tutor activities itself Immanuel Kant came by itself at these eager students and captured him in 1772 in his Disputatorium on. Since 1774, however, Kraus made ​​a visit to the Kantian lectures and acquired his education more broadly through self-study, first the English language and mathematics.

Importance was Christian Jakob Kraus through the dissemination of the body of thought of Adam Smith. This less through their own publications as by his teaching at the Albertina. As a teacher of a whole generation of officers he had taken great influence on the Prussian reforms. Along with his mentor, Immanuel Kant and his friend Johann Georg Hamann, the Enlightenment was the focus of the Konigsberg intellectual life of his time.

Kraus was at times a member of the Masonic Lodge Three Crowns in Königsberg.

Works

• State economy, ed. v. H. von Auerswald, 5 vols Königsberg from 1808 to 1811.
• Miscellaneous Writings, ed. v. H. von Auerswald, 7 vols Königsberg from 1808 to 1813.