On Kant's 300th Birthday

““We are radically free. Not pleasure but justice can move human beings to deeds that overcome the deepest of animal desires, the love of life. We want to determine the world, not only to be determined by it. We are born and we die as part of nature, but we feel most alive when we go beyond it: To be human is to refuse to accept the world we are given. Kant was driven by a question that still plagues us: Are ideas like freedom and justice utopian daydreams, or are they more substantial?... At the heart of Kant’s metaphysics stands the difference between the way the world is and the way the world ought to be. His thought experiment is an answer to those who argue that we are helpless in the face of pleasure and can be satisfied with bread and circuses — or artisanal chocolate and the latest iPhone. If that were true, benevolent despotism would be the best form of government. But if we long, in our best moments, for the dignity of freedom and justice, Kant’s example has political consequences.”

Susan Neiman, “Why the World Still Needs Immanuel Kant,” - https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/17/arts/immanuel-kant-300-anniversary.html