For from such crooked wood is man is made of, nothing perfectly straight can be built

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Dinesh ^club

“Careful Adherence to Principles”

”Freedom” clearly takes center stage here as well. The essay (“Groundwork cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/blog.nus.edu.sg/dist/c/1868/files/2012/12/Kant-Groundwork-ng0pby.pdf) starts with the same contrast between freedom of the will and the natural world of phenomena that is already familiar from the first ‘Critique’ and the review of Schulz. Indeed, Kant characterizes history (or better, historiography) as concerned with the temporal sequence of phenomena. He just hopes that “if it examines the free exercise of human will ‘on a large scale,’ it will be able to discover regular progression among freely willed actions.” Such a regular progression would not be due to any rational purpose of humanity, but would have to be ascribed to nature itself. He seeks “a guiding principle” for a history of “the free exercise of the human will on a large scale.”

To this end, Kant formulates in somewhat dogmatic fashion and with little defense nine propositions. The first maintains that all natural capacities of a creature are “destined” to be fully developed soon or later. If nature has a plan, then the plan must be fulfilled. If the select proposition, he claims that our reason is such that it can be developed fully only in the species, not in an individual. Our lives are too short to allow the latter. Third, “nature has willed that man should produce entirely by hiw own initiative everything which goes beyond the mechanical ordering of his animal existence, and that he should not partake of any other happiness or perfection than that which he has procured for himself without instinct and by how own reason.” Fourth nature brings about the full development of our natural faculties by an antagonism within society. In long run, this antagonism leads to a law-governed social order. Kant calls this “unsocial sociability.” Though people may not be able to bear one another many a time, they still seek the approval and respect of others. Fifth, the greater problem for the human species posed by nature is the development of “a civil society which can administer justice universally.” This is according to the sixth proposition, both the most difficult and the last problem to be solved by humanity. This is because man is an animal who needs a master, at least when he lives together with other human beings, because he has a tendency to abuse the others. This master can ultimately be found in man himself, and that makes the task difficult, indeed impossible: “for from such crooked wood is man is made of, nothing perfectly straight can be built” Another part of the reason this is so difficult becomes clear from the seventh proposition, which states that a perfect civil constitution presupposes a “law-governed external relationship with other states, and cannot be solved unless the latter is also solved.” Thus, eight, the history of human race as a whole can be regarded as “a hidden plan of nature” to bring about both a perfect civil constitution and law governed external relationships between the states that will allow full development of all our natural capacities. This is the reason why a universal history from cosmopolitan point of view not only must be possible, but may even further the purpose of nature itself.

While this might seem to be a mere academic exercise, it has for Kant the most practical consequences, for it shows, among other things, that we should

observe the ambitions of rulers and their servants, in order to indicate to them the only means by which they can be honorably remembered in the most distant ages. And this may provide us with another small motive for attempting a philosophical history of this kind. ~ Page 289/290

3 years ago. Edited 22 months ago.

Dinesh ^club

“Human beings are so intelligent,” said Kubota. But he added a caveat. “Before we achieve immortality,,” he said, “we must evolve first. The heart is not good.”

It seemed at first that he was making a biological argument: that we needed to design bionic hearts for longer, artificial lives. But he wasn’t speaking literally. But heart, he meant the human spirit: ”Before humans can evolve, they must first learn to love nature. When I was a child, I was surrounded bY nature. No longer. We live in a mechanical, technical world. People only know about nature through their computers. Today the countryside is obsolete. In Japan, it has disappeared. If this continues, nature will die. There are already signs that it is too late: a global warming, overpopulation of the human race, radioactive isotopes found in deep ocean waters. There are unseen chemicals everywhere. We are in the garbage.” ~ Page 267

22 months ago. Edited 22 months ago.

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