tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post4047523830416283619..comments2024-03-28T00:01:43.037-04:00Comments on Grim's Hall: Kant and Warning LabelsGrimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-8932920810644646652015-11-05T20:32:50.689-05:002015-11-05T20:32:50.689-05:00People learn more if they started thinking in a di...People learn more if they started thinking in a different language, vs reading translated copies of such works.<br /><br />It is the parallax effect of double language processing that allows breakthroughs in human comprehension to occur. Kant probably had issues with his native Deutsch, and just started chaining words together to form new words. People can do the same thing in English as well, but it is of more benefit to the writer than the reader.Ymar Sakarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-34279565388890747682015-11-03T11:45:08.145-05:002015-11-03T11:45:08.145-05:00The reason Kant misses that is that he believes th...The reason Kant misses that is that he believes that reason is the same for everyone. Formally, in his ethics, everyone legislates his or her own rules and nobody else's rules are in any way binding on you. That turns out to be tenable only because Kant thinks that -- insofar as we are acting according to pure practical reason -- we will all legislate the same rules. The structure of reason will guarantee it.<br /><br />He doesn't come out and say this in the <i>Groundwork</i>, which is what everyone reads, but he does in his later work, the <i>Metaphysics of Morals</i>. (See 6:207.) There he also contemplates the need for a state to enforce some of the dictates of reason because of the reality that people will violate some of them sometimes.<br /><br />He doesn't think we should enforce all of them, though. He divides the work according to the dictates of reason we'd have a right to use coercive force to enforce (he calls this "The Doctrine of Right") and the ones we wouldn't ("The Doctrine of Virtue"). 'Right' is where people are trespassing on you, rather than failing to do things that they ought to do but that you have no right to demand of them. So, 'right' covers theft or seducing your wife or assault or murder; as opposed to not giving you enough charity or not electing to avoid immoral sexual practices they might enjoy. If people fail to do those things, they're not being virtuous nor obeying the dictates of reason, but you can't legislate for yourself a moral law that would allow you to stop them without coming into problems with the CI (so Kant thought).Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-25508639442664583322015-11-03T10:29:52.219-05:002015-11-03T10:29:52.219-05:00There's something I believe is missing in Kant...There's something I believe is missing in Kant's theory of the Categorical Imperative, which requires that one act according to a rule which could be made universal without undercutting the purpose of your action....this is basically a more sophisticated version of the common parent's question "What would happen in *everyone* acted like that?"<br /><br />What is missing from this formulation is the test, "What if NOT everyone adopted this rule?"...for example, the rule that "everyone should be an absolute pacifist" passes the Categorical Imperative, but does not pass my proposed extension....it is "brittle," in that one nation or even one large group of people can destroy the objective by not following it.David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-81903032393426184692015-11-03T01:05:58.257-05:002015-11-03T01:05:58.257-05:00Kant's Critique was a wonderful read. I still ...Kant's Critique was a wonderful read. I still remember reading it on the train from DC to URI. He'd be burned at the stake today for making his assumptions and his statements about race and he was simply discussing the differences between English, French, German, etc.HMS Defianthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10024721130102173694noreply@blogger.com