IMMANUEL KANT
                                        (1724---`1804) 
                               THE SUPER PHILOSOPHER

   Kant was born in the East Prussian city of Konigsberg in 1724, and died there, almost eighty years later. He came from a family of modest means. His father was a harness-maker and his parents were Pietists, members of a Protestant faith that emphasized the inner religious life and the doing of good works. He entered the University of Konigsberg at age sixteen. After graduation, he worked as a private tutor, and then, at thirty-one, he received his first academic job, as an unsalaried lecturer, for which he was paid based on the number of students who showed up at his lectures. He was a popular lecturer on subjects that included metaphysics, logic, ethics, law, geography, and anthropology. 
   In 1781, at age fifty-seven, he published his first major book, The Critique of Pure Reason, which challenged the empiricist theory of knowledge associated with David Hume and John Locke. In 1785, he published the Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, which launched a devastating critique of utilitarianism. It argues that morality is not about maximizing happiness or any other end. Instead, it is about respecting persons as ends in themselves. 

Kant's Philosophy is Hard Going, But Don't Be Intimidated

   I get my info from listening to audio tapes and from viewing online lectures. If you or your kids / grandkids actually get interested in Kantian philosophy, I urge you to go to the Internet and find Professor Michael Sandel ( Harvard philosophy instructor ) and watch and listen to his lectures on justice. He is wonderful. And, if you wonder why in God's name I fuck with arcane subjects like this, it's because much of what Kant said in the 18th century still looms over current moral and political issues. But, you'll never hear Kant's name mentioned by commentators or pundits on talk radio or TV or in some shitty newspaper. If you're going to impress your fellow Wal-Mart shoppers with words of Kantian wisdom, you need a resource like moi. 

          Let's Start With Two Big Questions That Make The 
          Contemporary Study Of Kant Relevant To Us Thinkers


   1. What is the supreme principle of morality ?

   2. What is freedom ? 

   Kant's answers to these questions have loomed over moral and political philosophy since the 1780s. But his historical influence is not the only reason to pay attention to him. Daunting though Kant's philosophy may seem at first glance, it actually informs much contemporary thinking about morality and politics, even if we are unaware of it. So making sense of Kant is not only a philosophical exercise, it is also a way of examining some of the key assumptions implicit in our public life. 
   Kant's emphasis on human dignity informs present-day notions of universal human rights. More important, his account of freedom figures in many of our contemporary debates about justice. So far, we have distinguished three approaches to justice. One approach, that of the utilitarians, says that the way to define justice and to determine the right thing to do is to ask what will maximize welfare, or the collective happiness of society as a whole. A second approach connects justice to freedom. Libertarians offer an example of this approach. They say that just distribution of income and wealth is whatever distribution arises from the free exchange of goods and services in an unfettered market. To regulate the market is unjust, they maintain, because it violates the individual's freedom of choice. A third approach says that justice means giving people what they morally deserve --- allocating goods to reward and promote virtue. As we saw when we considered Aristotle, the virtue-based approach connects justice to reflections about the good life. 
   Kant rejects approach one (maximizing welfare) and approach three (promoting virtue) . Neither, he thinks, respects human freedom. But the idea of freedom he puts forth is demanding --- more demanding than the freedom of choice we exercise when buying and selling goods on the market. What we commonly think of as market freedom or consumer choice is not true freedom, Kant argues, because it simply involves satisfying desires we haven't chosen in the first place. 
   In a moment, we'll come to Kant's more exalted idea of freedom. But before we do, let's see why he thinks the utilitarians are wrong to think of justice and morality as a matter of maximizing happiness.