Читать книгу Kant: Philosophy in an Hour - Paul Strathern - Страница 4

Just because a thing is impossible, this doesn’t mean someone won’t try to do it. Kant not only tried but succeeded in achieving the impossible. After Hume had destroyed philosophy and any possibility of constructing a metaphysical system, Kant created the greatest metaphysical system of them all. His motive was to refute Hume, but fortunately he had read only Hume’s Inquiry into Human Understanding, not the more penetrating skepticism of his earlier Treatise of Human Nature. Had Kant read this, he might have produced no system. This would have been a great pity and would have left an entire generation of nineteenth-century German philosophy professors without jobs.

Kant’s system is like Newton’s idea of gravity. It’s not the final answer, but it’s close to how we still see the world. You won’t go far wrong if you look at the world Kant’s way. Hume’s philosophy is essentially simplistic: it reduces our philosophical condition to the barren rock of solipsism. Kant, building on the deceptive sands of error, created a wonderful sandcastle of such ingenuity and complexity that it can keep you happily absorbed with your bucket and spade for your entire vacation.

It’s difficult to know what to say about Kant’s life. He didn’t really have one (outside his head). Nothing of any real interest happened to him. But the description of a life of utter tedium need not be boring in itself.