any reason left?

mood: overdrive - essay writing mode
state i'm in: throat is a little sore
tune: brand new heavies "right on" - tight horn section!



the german philosopher kant was a great champion of the idea and importance of autonomy. for kant, human beings had the capacity to not only act in order to achieve their goals and desires, but to impose upon themselves rules or laws of morality, which he considered must be based in reason. these were amongst the defining properties of human beings, and if each human being were of that kind, it followed that each person must be treated as an “end in itself” rather than an object. kant implored us to always act so that at the time of acting we would simultaneously “will” that the maxim or principle of our action could become a universal law - these are rather complicated ways of saying that we should treat others as ourselves - the golden rule.

mal parker on the philophies of kant.


kant was making a bit of sense when he was talking about this stuff, but i don't suppose anyone gives a shit any more.