Saturday, April 22, 2023

German Philosopher Immanuel Kant on This Day in History


This Day in History: German philosopher Immanuel Kant died on this day in 1804. His greatest writings he gave the titles (with some hubris) "Pure Reason" and "Practical Reason." I often wonder how someone can build a philosophy when he has never left his immediate neighborhood for his entire life. Perhaps he just re-imagines or re-states a previous philosophy. Take his famous Categorical Imperative: "Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law." Is this not just a fancier way of stating the golden rule in Matthew 7: "do unto others what you would have them do to you?"

Perhaps Jason Brennan is right:

"Just as Einstein’s field equations aren’t particularly useful for studying the path of a falling feather, so Kant’s CI isn’t particularly useful to know what to do in a given situation."
https://fee.org/articles/what-do-you-need-philosophy-for/

See also 350 Books on German Philosophy to Download (Kant, Nietzsche,
Schopenhauer, Hegel)
http://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2015/10/350-books-on-german-philosophy-on.html

Dissing Immanuel Kant
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2015/10/dissing-immanuel-kant.html

Theosophy and Immanuel Kant by H. T. Edge, M. A. 1916
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2018/02/theosophy-and-immanuel-kant-by-h-t-edge.html

No comments:

Post a Comment