I think this is a prime example of intellectuals ascribing way too much world-historical importance to other intellectuals. I think the content of philosophy and ideology is largely a reflection of larger social and material forces, and intellectuals merely put a crystallized version of it on paper ("I'll play it and you tell me what it is," as jazz musicians used to say about critics and music theorists). The people who make world shaping decisions are almost never intellectuals, and at most use the works of intellectuals to justify what they were going to do anyway. Kant is simply not important enough to be the "root of modern evil", his books are just books.
I would normally ignore an essay on Kant, but your other essays are so good I figured I would give it a shot. I'm glad I did! This was accessible, interesting, and, at the end, quite chilling.
You write, "Perhaps we need to accept that reality is piebald. And so whatever values, goals, or ends it has must be piebald too. Impurity must be defended against the pure." It's impossible not to think of Gerald Manly Hopkins: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44399/pied-beauty
I think this is a prime example of intellectuals ascribing way too much world-historical importance to other intellectuals. I think the content of philosophy and ideology is largely a reflection of larger social and material forces, and intellectuals merely put a crystallized version of it on paper ("I'll play it and you tell me what it is," as jazz musicians used to say about critics and music theorists). The people who make world shaping decisions are almost never intellectuals, and at most use the works of intellectuals to justify what they were going to do anyway. Kant is simply not important enough to be the "root of modern evil", his books are just books.
I always like your articles, don't stop writing
Thank you
I would normally ignore an essay on Kant, but your other essays are so good I figured I would give it a shot. I'm glad I did! This was accessible, interesting, and, at the end, quite chilling.
You write, "Perhaps we need to accept that reality is piebald. And so whatever values, goals, or ends it has must be piebald too. Impurity must be defended against the pure." It's impossible not to think of Gerald Manly Hopkins: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44399/pied-beauty