rational beings we have a part in what Kant calls das Ding an sich—that is,
the world as it exists in itself, independent of our sensory impressions. Only
when we follow our ‘practical reason’— which enables us to make moral
choices—do we exercise our free will, because when we conform to moral
law, it is we who make the law we are conforming to.”
“Yes, that’s true in a way. It is me, or something in me, which tells me
not to be mean to others.”
“So when you choose not to be mean—even if it is against your own
interests—you are then acting freely.”
“You’re not especially free or independent if you just do whatever you
want, in any case.”
“One can become a slave to all kinds of things. One can even become a
slave to one’s own egoism. Independence and freedom are exactly what are
required to rise above one’s desires and vices.”
“What about animals? I suppose they just follow their inclinations and
needs. They don’t have any freedom to follow moral law, do they?”
“No, that’s the difference between animals and humans.”
“I see that now.”
“And finally we could perhaps say that Kant succeeded in showing the
way out of the impasse that philosophy had reached in the struggle between
rationalism and empiricism. With Kant, an era in the history of philosophy is
therefore at an end. He died in 1804, when the cultural epoch we call
Romanticism was in the ascendant. One of his most quoted sayings is carved
on his gravestone in Konigsberg: Two things fill my mind with ever-increasing
wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the reflection dwells
on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.’ “
Alberto leaned back in his chair. “That’s it,” he said. “I think I have told
you what’s most important about Kant.”
“Anyway, it’s a quarter past four.”
“But there is just one thing. Please give me a minute.”
“I never leave the classroom before the teacher is finished.”
“Did I say that Kant believed we had no freedom if we lived only as
creatures of the senses?”
“Yes, you said something like that.”
“But if we obey universal reason we are free and independent. Did I say
that, too?”
“Yes. Why are you saying it again now?”
Alberto leaned toward Sophie, looked deep into her eyes, and
whispered: “Don’t believe everything you see, Sophie.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Just turn the other way, child.”
“Now, I don’t understand what you mean at all.”
“People usually say, I’ll believe that when I see it. But don’t believe what
you see, either.”
“You said something like that once before.”
“Yes, about Parmenides.”
“But I still don’t know what you mean.”
“Well, we sat out there on the step, talking. Then that so-called sea
serpent began to flap about in the water.”
“Wasn’t it peculiar!”