Philosophical Journey: Kant

The thing I like about Philosophy is that you can predict the style of writing by the nationality or cultural background of their respective authors. Americans are known to be organized and always conclude their works by repeating and summarizing what they've said. The French are notorious for being messy and seemingly having no direction at all (as in the case of Levinas). German philosophers write in a very systematic and straightforward manner. Sometimes, the work becomes too systematic that one can get overwhelmed by the degree of organization the author has invested in it (but I'll take the German philosophers over the French any day). This is exactly what I encountered when I studied Kant.

I'll tell you right away that reading Immanuel Kant was no walk in the park. That's because he kept mentioning terms like universalizability, Kingdom of Ends and categorical, which were all alien to me (I then realized that "categorical" meant "unconditional" and not used as a function of enumeration). It was only then later when I encountered his philosophy multiple times in other subjects that I was able to grasp his message, which turned out to be very simple. Immanuel Kant essentially advocates the rule of law, or more specifically, following your maxims. The core message of his philosophy can be summarized by the "Golden Rule": do to others what you would like to be done to you. And it is this maxim or rule that should be followed out of moral duty.

Despite the criticisms on Kant's philosophy for being very vague, his ideas on moral duty is what appealed to me the most. It is still my dominant guiding principle up to this day. It really makes a lot of sense because our duties give direction and meaning to our lives. It is what gives us reason to exist on this planet in the first place. More importantly, it is that sense of duty that drives us to get things done. It is the initiator and catalyst for a person's accomplishments. We do certain things in the name of fulfilling our duties.

Kant's ideas are very noble and chivalrous like that of medieval knights but they once again hit a snag. We now know that fulfilling our duties is a must but our duties are linked to our roles. And it is these roles or careers that we must find for ourselves first before we can determine our moral obligations. What are we called to do? Where do we fit in society? Are we called to be doctors, politicians, lawyers? These are the questions that I continuously struggle with and what helped me answer them came two semesters later when I studied Eastern Philosophy.