Kant Around Midnight

I finished rereading Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason” around midnight last night. For some odd reason I was not satiated with Kant. I pressed on, reading “Idea for a Universal History with Cosmopolitan Intent” and “Answer to the Question What Is Enlightenment?” It was like emerging from a dark labyrinth into a brightly lit expansive plain.

In the universal history, I found a surprising affinity between Kant’s view of human nature and civilization and that expressed by Freud in the opening of “The Future of an Illusion”. In the question about enlightenment, I found much related to my meditations about the current state of American religion and politics.

That is not to denigrate “The Critique of Pure Reason” though. Where else will you find the most sophisticated pre-scientific a priori explication of the folk psychology handed down to us by the ancient Greeks? Where else will you find profound responses to questions about how the limits of reason relate to reality, freedom, the soul, and god?

I have much more Kant to read. The sails are set and the wind is at my back.