Quote of the day by Immanuel Kant: 'Children become more stubborn if physical punishment is often repeated on them...' - Parenting lesson on raising children without using fear by German philosopher

Immanuel Kant’s words on children, punishment and stubbornness raises a simple but important question about parenting, can repeated punishment actually make the behaviour it is meant to correct even stronger? The German philosopher wrote extensively about education and discipline, and his views suggested that punishment should not simply be an outlet for anger, but should have a clear purpose in helping a child develop. The quote, “If physical punishment is often repeated, it makes a child stubborn; and if parents punish their children for stubbornness, they often become all the more stubborn,” comes from Kant’s work On Education, where he discusses obedience, discipline and the formation of character.

Quote of the day by Immanuel Kant and its meaning

“If physical punishment is often repeated, it makes a child stubborn; and if parents punish their children for stubbornness, they often become all the more stubborn” - Immanuel Kant

At the centre of this quote is a fairly straightforward observation. Kant was warning that repeatedly using physical punishment may not necessarily make a child more obedient. Instead, it can create resistance. If a child already refuses to cooperate and the response from a parent is repeatedly harsher punishment, the child may start reacting to the punishment itself rather than thinking about the original mistake. The struggle then becomes less about what the child did and more about refusing to give in.


The second part of the quote makes the point even more directly. Kant says that punishing a child because they are stubborn can sometimes make that stubbornness worse. In other words, a parent may believe that stronger punishment will eventually force obedience, while the child may respond by becoming even more determined not to yield. Kant adds that stubbornness should not automatically be treated as proof of bad character, because some people may respond better to a calm explanation or “kind remonstrance” than to punishment.

Quote of the day and Kant’s views on punishment

The quote appears in Kant’s discussion of education, where he makes a distinction between different forms of punishment. He did not simply argue that every form of discipline should disappear. His wider argument was more complicated. He believed children needed discipline and guidance, but punishment had to be used carefully and should be directed towards the child’s improvement.

In On Education, Kant wrote that punishments delivered in anger were useless because children could come to see them simply as the result of an adult’s anger. He also warned that physical punishment should be used with caution. The text says physical punishment should only supplement moral punishment and argues that repeated physical punishment does not produce good character.

That part of Kant’s thinking is important when reading the quote today. He was not merely talking about whether a parent should punish a particular act. He was interested in what kind of person the child might become through the process of education. For Kant, education was connected to character, self-control, reason and eventually the ability to act according to principles rather than simply reacting to fear.

His work on education also shows why the quote fits into his larger philosophy. Kant believed that children gradually needed to move from simply following rules towards understanding why those rules mattered. In his discussion of obedience, he distinguished the obedience of a child from the later understanding of duty that develops as a person grows.

Who was Immanuel Kant?

Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724, in Königsberg, then part of East Prussia. The city is now known as Kaliningrad and is part of Russia. Kant came from a modest artisan family. His father was a harness maker, while his mother was known for her intelligence and strong character. His parents were followers of Pietism, a movement within German Lutheranism that placed considerable emphasis on personal religious life, discipline and moral conduct.

Kant was one of nine children, although only some of his siblings survived into adulthood. He received his early education at a Pietist school and later entered the University of Königsberg in 1740. Although he had initially been connected with theological studies, his interests increasingly moved towards mathematics, physics and philosophy.

One of the important influences during his university years was Isaac Newton’s scientific work. Kant also encountered the philosophy associated with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Christian Wolff. His early intellectual life was therefore already shaped by a question that would remain important throughout his career: how can human reason understand the world, and what are the limits of that understanding?

After leaving university, Kant could not immediately establish himself in an academic position. He worked for several years as a private tutor for families in the Königsberg area. This period lasted for roughly nine years and gave him the opportunity to continue studying and writing while earning a living. He eventually returned to academic life and began teaching at the University of Königsberg.

Kant spent his entire career in Königsberg

One of the unusual things about Kant’s life is how closely it remained tied to his hometown. He did not become a travelling intellectual in the way some other major European thinkers did. He lived and worked in Königsberg for almost his entire life and eventually became professor of logic and metaphysics there.

Kant first worked as an unsalaried lecturer, known as a Privatdozent, from 1755. During those years he taught a wide range of subjects. His lectures covered philosophy, logic and metaphysics, but also mathematics, physics and physical geography. His teaching reputation grew steadily, and he became known in Königsberg not only as a serious scholar but also as an engaging lecturer and conversationalist.

In 1770, Kant finally became professor of logic and metaphysics at Königsberg. He had already spent many years developing his ideas, but his most influential period was still ahead.

The work that changed Kant’s reputation

Kant published Critique of Pure Reason in 1781, when he was 57. The book examined what human beings can know and where the limits of knowledge lie. A second edition followed in 1787. The work became the foundation of what is generally called Kant’s critical philosophy.

One of Kant’s major arguments was that human beings do not simply receive an already organised world through their senses. The mind itself contributes structures through which experience becomes understandable. This led to his influential distinction between things as they appear to us and things as they are in themselves. Human knowledge, in his account, is limited to experience as structured through human faculties, while things in themselves cannot be directly known.

The book was followed by several other major works. These included Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals in 1785, Critique of Practical Reason in 1788 and Critique of the Power of Judgment in 1790. Together, these works helped establish Kant as one of the central figures of modern philosophy.