system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why was Immanuel Kant so captivated by Rosseau's "Emile" that he missed his afternoon walks?

I apologize if this had already been answered.

Kant is perhaps infamous for being rigid enough for  his neighbors to set their clocks to the time in which Kant took his afternoon walks.  However, I read that Kant missed his afternoon walks for several days after reading Rosseau's "Emile, or On Education." I'm not especially familiar with Rosseau's works other than "The Social Contract," but I was hoping someone could explain what was so captivating about this particular work of philosophy in Kant's perspective?
gpt
It was particularly the part called 'profession de foi du vicaire savoyard' that influenced Kant. Kant took from Rousseau the idea that virtue (being good) isn't a science, that morality doesn't depend on knowledge, that being moral isn't a matter of knowing some privileged moral proposition. This lead to Kant exploring reason as being a *practical* faculty, rather than just theoretical. 

Rousseau taught him that although we're all unequal when it comes to our capacities for philosophical speculation and theoretical reasoning (for some people are more intelligent than others, never had the right education etc), we're all equal in our capacities to become *good*, we all share an equal moral and metaphysical dignity. Being moral is a matter of how we act, of the intention that forms our actions. In other words, it's not a matter of rationally knowing special moral truths that we become good, but rather by acting according to our conscience (which would become the moral law in Kants works). For Rousseau, having a conscience is part of being human, it's a natural feeling that inclines towards what's good, it's the feeling that pushes one to love and want the good, it's the inner voice of right and wrong that judges ourselves and others.  'One can be human (homme) without being a scientist (savant)' (Rousseau).