Kant's entire philosophy is based on people being rational and free and what reason people have for thinking freely. I would like to place emphasis on the later part as to why people should be able to think freely. I think that this is extremely important to be able to think freely but in some cultures people are either not allowed to or are not given the education they need to fully comprehend important things at all. There is a plethora of reasons for us to think freely. As Aristotle said calculative pleasure is the highest form and if people dont have the opportunity to think freely then they may not get the chance to experience that joy.
I think that people could have several different reasons for thinking freely, such as to make yourself appear more intelligent to other, to help improve the lives of others and many more. With all these good options we generally take that for granted. In many countries across the globe there is governments that force their youth to study only what they want them to and think and believe in the things that are suitable for the state.
I think that all of us that have gotten into rhodes have the ability to think and do it quite well. So if we have been given this great opportunity to think then why not do it to the fullest and expand our thinking skills. Kant talks about Dentology (our certain duties) and I think he would tell us if we have been given the ability to think like most of us can then it is our duty to think and not merely just go through the motions. Of coarse there are always influences on our ability to think freely like our peers and culture but for the God did give us free will so we should use it. People thinking freely is what got us to where we are now if we all had the same mindset that someone else wanted you to have then we would not break through any knew territory. Kant's philosophy is very applicable to all of us especially in a philosophy class because it shows us that regardless of what we are thinking we should think and think for ourselves.
I definitely think that the thinking freely part of Kant's philosophy is very important. Most people would agree that it is important to have this freedom. However, it is interesting to think about censorship problems in terms of Kant. What would he say to some of the debates that arise out of regulating what society sees and hears? In other countries, many people's thoughts are suppressed whether in terms of limiting religious freedoms or what people can publish. Kant would object to this limitation because it supports skewing ideas into what one authoritative group thinks is better for the whole. I agree with you that it is important for us to think about Kant's philosophy because the idea of thinking freely is so important in our society.
ReplyDeleteI agree as well, and I wonder if this idea of thinking freely also pertains to his ideas of the categorical imperative. Although, I have not really studied any of Kant outside of what we have read, but I think it would be interesting to ponder the idea of whether or not he believes that we should also think in such a way that is the maxim of our thoughts. Perhaps our thoughts are the means to our actions and therefore they too must be done in such a way that our reflected actions meet the maxim requirements. Yes, this does seem rather like an extreme, but if we see the mind as a segue to our actions perhaps it must first start there in order to fulfill Kant's categorical imperatives.
ReplyDeleteThe opportunity to think freely and have the opportunity to take advantage of our free will is definitely vital to our future and education. I tend to agree with Colleen on whether Kant believes our free thinking should be based upon our maxims in order to abide by the universal law. However, it is justifiable to abide by such restrictions? Kant also states that the idea of thinking along the maxim is simply an idea and that it is not, in fact, a reasonable solution considering if one had the freedom to think freely, then should not be obliged to limit themselves to the maxims. These two opposing opinions that Kant expresses in his work can be seen directly in our world today as Conner and Esha said. While many countries believe in only thinking things that could benefit the society as whole, it appears to have benefited several societies, such as our's, where we can take advantage of our free will and not be obliged to learn things strictly based upon our what our society needs in order to coexist.
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