I've been thinking about Kant again, for a few reasons:
1. I've been reading a novel The Thing Itself (which I only found via watching an English guy on Youtube who talks about science fiction), and it's explicitly based on an elaboration of one of Kant's key ideas - transcendental idealism. The brief summary of that is:
In the Critique of Pure Reason Kant argues that space and time are merely formal features of how we perceive objects, not things in themselves that exist independently of us, or properties or relations among them. Objects in space and time are said to be “appearances”, and he argues that we know nothing of substance about the things in themselves of which they are appearances. Kant calls this doctrine (or set of doctrines) “transcendental idealism”, and ever since the publication of the first edition of the Critique of Pure Reason in 1781, Kant’s readers have wondered, and debated, what exactly transcendental idealism is, and have developed quite different interpretations.
How have I found the novel? Pretty good, actually. A science fictiony/mild horror intriguing read, but I would say it is not for everyone, in that the author Adam Roberts tries various stylistic things (with some chapters written in old or futuristic English, for example), and from comments on Reddit, it seems some have found that a bit jarring.
But the basic concept is fine. And it features AI in a way that seems more relevant now than when it was written a few years ago.
I haven't finished it yet, but I doubt the whole can be ruined in the last quarter.
2. I have tried asking a couple of AI services about Kant, and been given some interesting food for thought.
For example, I didn't realise (until reading an article that AI led me to) how much Russia* (including Putin!) likes to claim Kant as their own. I don't recall reading about this controversy in 2024, the year in which there were a lot of "happy 300th year birthday" conferences on Kant, but here we go:
Putin’s war of aggression contradicts all of Kant’s fundamental statements, said the Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz in a speech on the occasion of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences' ceremony to mark Kant’s 300th birthday, on April 22.
“Putin doesn’t have the slightest right to quote Kant […] Nevertheless, Putin’s regime remains committed to appropriating Kant and his work at almost any cost,” said Scholz.
The big problem:
The congress opened with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko reading a message from President Putin, after which all participants rose for the national anthem. In the message Putin said that Kant’s call for using one’s own reason (sapere aude) in Russia’s case meant to be guided by its national interests.
Ha! Anyone who has the slightest knowledge of Kant would know that this is ridiculous.
By the way, look at how many places held events about him -
Key conferences and events for the 300th Anniversary (2024):
- 14th International Kant Congress (Bonn, Germany): September 8-13, 2024. Theme: "Kant's Project of Enlightenment".
- World Concept of Philosophy (Kaliningrad, Russia): April 2024. Focused on Kant's birthplace and legacy.
- International Conference "Kant 300" (Online/Global): April 22-26, 2024.
- "The Young Kant" (Evanston, USA): May 23-25, 2024, at Northwestern University.
- "Critical Philosophy for Cosmopolitan Justice and Perpetual Peace" (Lisbon, Portugal): September 17-19, 2024.
- Kant 300 (Latvia): International conference by National Library of Latvia and University of Mainz (Feb-Nov 2024).
- Kant 300 (Vietnam): Van Lang University (July 2024).
What a guy!
And why don't more people know a bit more about him?
3. I also asked an AI (Claude) as to what it thought about an idea I've had for ages (and which I have mentioned here before) that a novel or movie which revealed the secret life of Kant as a Prussian secret agent (instead of a virginal, overly intellectual, routine obsessed, academic) could be fun. And of course, being an LLM type AI, designed to keep me happy, Claude thought it a great idea. It also made many suggestions as to how aspects of his life and times could be used, and proposed a broad outline.
The only problem is (see point 2) - no one in the public knows anything about him. I suppose that didn't stop Amadeus being a hit, even though most people knew nothing of Mozart's odd life and scatological sense of humour.
The other thing is that there is apparently extremely little in the way of personal diaries or letters from him that give much of an insight into his character.
But then, AI might also have helped (a different one - Deepseek) in that it has referred me to a 2025 book that I am sure will be a top seller (haha): "Portraits of Kant: Refletions from 18th and 19th Century Europe":
Someone has put online some introductory extracts, including this from the preface:
Hey, I just mentioned Amadeus, and now I find Kant had a real life "bitter opponent"!
Maybe I have to re-jig my ideas for a fictional treatment....
Anyway: I think there's a good chance I'm one of a mere handful of people in my entire country who is (kind of) excited to see Kant is still being talked about in such detail. (I get the feeling Australian philosophy departments may mainly be more into the modern, less satisfying, stuff.)
Do I dare look into Anna's Archive for this recent book that I can ill afford? Kant would be very against me doing that, I'm sure. So I should not...
* His home city Konigsberg was Prussian at the time, but underwent a period of Russian occupation while Kant was alive, only to later be permanently made part of Russia and turning into Kaliningrad.
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