Comments on: Kant’s Christ http://bdhamilton.com/articles/kants-christ Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:50:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: DPSquires http://bdhamilton.com/articles/kants-christ#comment-708 DPSquires Sat, 14 Jul 2007 20:24:09 +0000 http://bdhamilton.com/articles/kants-christ#comment-708 afterthought: by suggesting a comparison I meant only that both German Idealism and Christianity see recognition of the Divine (or it's deontologized equivalent) as being about more than mere empirical observation (albeit in very different ways). I guess this is nothing new though, as I would take it to be the subject matter of works at least as early as Plato's Meno, and a frequently re-occuring problem throughout the history of philosophy (De Magistro, Summa, Meditations, Critique, Philosophical Fragments, etc.) afterthought: by suggesting a comparison I meant only that both German Idealism and Christianity see recognition of the Divine (or it’s deontologized equivalent) as being about more than mere empirical observation (albeit in very different ways). I guess this is nothing new though, as I would take it to be the subject matter of works at least as early as Plato’s Meno, and a frequently re-occuring problem throughout the history of philosophy (De Magistro, Summa, Meditations, Critique, Philosophical Fragments, etc.)

]]> By: David Squires http://bdhamilton.com/articles/kants-christ#comment-704 David Squires Fri, 13 Jul 2007 23:43:31 +0000 http://bdhamilton.com/articles/kants-christ#comment-704 Kant goes even further perhaps. It is not only that no instance of human moral perfection is necessary for the archetype to press itself upon us demanding the conformity of our own moral maxims, but it is only on account of such an a priori imperative that man is at all able to recognize moral perfection in another. This applies even to recognition of the God-man. "Moreover, worse service cannot be rendered morality than that an attempt be made to derive it from examples. For every example of morality presented to me must itself first be judged according to principles of morality in order to see whether it is fit to serve as an original example, i.e., as a model. But in no way can it authoritatively furnish the concept of morality. Even the Holy One of the gospel must first be compared with our ideal of moral perfection before he is recognized as such." -- Kant, Groundwork 408,409. as an interesting comparison: "For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father in heaven." But the comparison perhaps ends there, for what has Rome to do with Königsberg? Kant goes even further perhaps. It is not only that no instance of human moral perfection is necessary for the archetype to press itself upon us demanding the conformity of our own moral maxims, but it is only on account of such an a priori imperative that man is at all able to recognize moral perfection in another. This applies even to recognition of the God-man.

“Moreover, worse service cannot be rendered morality than that an attempt be made to derive it from examples. For every example of morality presented to me must itself first be judged according to principles of morality in order to see whether it is fit to serve as an original example, i.e., as a model. But in no way can it authoritatively furnish the concept of morality. Even the Holy One of the gospel must first be compared with our ideal of moral perfection before he is recognized as such.” — Kant, Groundwork 408,409.

as an interesting comparison:

“For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father in heaven.”

But the comparison perhaps ends there, for what has Rome to do with Königsberg?

]]>