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MSgt Steve Sweeney
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Edited 4 y ago
I found Kant to be a little bit out there. While I understand the premise of what he called a "Categorical Imperative", I can't take it onboard 100%. With regard to how we treat others and not to be manipulative to our own ends, I can see it, but that could also extend to false flattery or telling someone something nice - think of when the wife asks the husband, "Do I look fat in these jeans"? The CI would require the husband to answer 100% truthfully... which I feel will not always turn out so well. Another example is if someone was running from a killer and hid in your house. The killer shows up at the door and asks if the person is there. The CI as Kant described it would not allow a person to lie, even to protect another. Kant's philosophy does bring up some interesting debates though.
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SGT Kevin Hughes
SGT Kevin Hughes
4 y
Hey Top, your post shows that some folks have read AND understood Kant. Your short reply is spot on. One of my very favorite periods of History is kind of glossed over by this article: The Enlightenment. During the Enlightenment Period part of the changing mindset was to stop ruling or governing by: " The Authority of God, and Divine Revelation as Truth".
The leading thinkers of the time wanted to use Reason and Logic as the only means of determining the 'Truth". The Scientific Method was in its infancy, and there weren't even any Countries ...yet. Not as we know them. All the "countries" back then were Kingdoms, Duchies, Baronies, or City States left over, along with the remnants of the Holy Roman (Hapsburg) Empire, Ottoman Empire, and Tsars and such.

So Kant's efforts tended to be along the lines of making us all into "Spocks", where Reason ruled...well...reasonably well. It is difficult for us to put ourselves in a mindset where God Ruled all thoughts, and Kings were thought to have Divine Rights. Bringing that down to the individual is his own King (first popularly taught by Jesus) was a long long road. From Jesus, to Erasmus too almost fifteen hundred years, and another three centuries to get to Kant.
He did a good job. LOL
As to Honesty, I am reminded of a Mark Twain Quote:

"No man could survive one hundred percent honesty from another man, and luckily, no man ever will have to." LOL
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MSgt Steve Sweeney
MSgt Steve Sweeney
4 y
SGT Kevin Hughes - Outstanding and informative synopsis regarding the underpinnings of Kant's thought process. While I can see the line of thought that gets Kant to his conclusion, I am left with the impression that there were a few off ramps he chose to pass up before arriving at his destination.

Twain is one of my very favorites, and the quote you cited reminds me why. He will always say it better than I ever could.
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SGT Kevin Hughes
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Edited 4 y ago
One of the most difficult courses I ever took in College was a philosophy course. Since the Nuns told me no course could be "hard"...because hard was a physical property of real things, like wood, rocks, and steel- that ideas, thoughts, and concepts could never be hard, only difficult. She got mad at me when I showed her in a book on the Brain that Consciousness is considered "The hard Problem.' That is its official name.

All that got me was a couple of whacks with ping pong paddle with holes drilled in it so it would whistle on the way to your rear end AND smack with nice stinging slap sound.

But I digress...

When I went to college (the first couple of times...it took me a while to get my GPA to the left of the decimal) two Philosophy Courses were mandatory, as were at least one Ethics Class, and one Logic Class. All three are closely interlinked. By the 1980's I read in an article that none of the three schools of thought were required any longer for Undergrad Degrees.

Then I discovered that Law Schools (Law Schools!) dropped Ethics requirements. But the Medical Community and Research Community widened the scope of their "Ethics" Classes and even established codes an boards to ensure the ethical considerations of their work.

Reading through even this "Cliff Notes" version of Kant...was damn HARD!

I don't care what the Nun's say. (They aren't listening...are they?)
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SGT Kevin Hughes
SGT Kevin Hughes
4 y
Col Carl Whicker - I love stories like this. I don't know why some are as lucky as you and your wife. I think us guys just fall head over heels in love and the girls think they could work with that. LOL I do think it is the woman who makes it work in any long term relationship. In most cases they have many options, and we usually don't. LOL
My Sister and her husband made it to fifty years before they both died (a year apart) and she told me once: "Kevin, Carl is the only man I ever kissed, and the only man I ever wanted to." Sometimes, we are born monogamous. And it works.
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Col Carl Whicker
Col Carl Whicker
4 y
SGT Kevin Hughes - Well, I can't speak for everyone, but when you are both committed to the other one's happiness, things just seem to work out!
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SGT Kevin Hughes
SGT Kevin Hughes
4 y
Col Carl Whicker - I couldn't agree more. Everyone told Kathy and I we would not make it: different Religions, Different Countries (She's Canadian), Different upbringing (she was rural poor on a farm in Canada, I was inner city poor in Ohio), and a host of other excuses for us to fail. Not the least of which was that I proposed to her the night I met her, and when she told her Church Leaders she fell in love with me- they sent her far away.

So other than the first six weeks of seeing her almost daily- I didn't get to see her for a Calendar year...except for one day- Christmas. She cut my hair. As soon as she got released and went home to Canada- she came back to Texas, and we got married. Those folks that didn't think we would make it? Some are gone from old age, five have divorced themselves, and we, well, we are beyond happy and sneaking very close to contented.
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Col Carl Whicker
Col Carl Whicker
4 y
SGT Kevin Hughes - Good for you, Kevin. Living (and loving) well is the best revenge!
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PVT Mark Zehner
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Interesting man!
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