Marek Jan Chodakiewicz of the Institute of World Politics analyzes the role of Holocaust revisionism in the Islamic assault on the West: “The terrible, if unstated, implications of the anti-Jewish logic of the Islamists are clear. For them, the Holocaust is the secular religion of the West. The United States is the dominant Western power. It is controlled by ‘the Jews’ who purvey the ‘myth’ of the Holocaust. If Ahmadinejad and his cronies destroy the ‘myth,’ they will destroy the... Read more
Milbank’s criticisms of Kantian ethics begin from the observation that feeling enters into the ethical mix only as “the paradoxical feeling of ‘the sublime’ which is the feeling of a break with feeling, or the counter-attractive attraction of sacrifice.” This account of moral feeling, Milbank argues, arises from central themes of Kant’s ethical system. Morality is “the law of the noumenal” and hence “outside the bounds of our understanding.” Yet it needs to be “schematized” in a sensible way, yet... Read more
My article on “re-paganizing the West” is up on the First Things web site: http://www.firstthings.com. Read more
You’ll notice to the right that my book on postmodernism is due out early next year. In it, I use some of the images and categories of Ecclesiastes to explore some themes of postmodernism – specifically, language, the self, and politics. Read more
In a web essay, Jean-Michel Rabaté traces the background to Lacan’s notorious coupling of Kant and Sade. One mediating figure is Freud. In an essay on the “economic problem of masochism,” Freud linked the Kantian categorical imperative with the cruel demands of the super-ego: “This super-ego is in fact just as much a representative of the id as of the outer world. It originated through the introjection into the ego of the first objects of the libidinal impulses in the... Read more
Part 2 of Kant’s treatise on rational religion is a philosophical allegorization of traditional Christology and soteriology, which he pursues in an effort to explain the formation of a humanity pleasing to God. Some notes on this section: 1) Kant approves of the Stoic notion of virtue as manly courage and valor in combat, but he thinks the Stoics, like many philosophers, mistake the opponent. What we need to combat is not natural inclination, which is good and needs only... Read more
Kant admits that his philosophical interpretation of the fall is not “intended for Scriptural exegesis, which lies outside the boundaries of the competence of mere reason.” Putting the “historical account” to “moral use” leaves the issue of the writer’s intention, the text’s meaning, historicity to the side. But perhaps the moral and philosophical use of the narrative is precisely in its historicity – the fact that the fall occurred in time, and was a fall from an original innocence. How... Read more
Citing a still-unknown Greek writer, Kant shrewdly said, “War . . . creates more evil men than it takes away.” Read more
Citing a still-unknown Greek writer, Kant shrewdly said, “War . . . creates more evil men than it takes away.” Read more
In a reduction worthy of Nietzsche (or Augustine), Kant explores the motives behind honor: “the perpetual war between the Arathapescaw Indians and the Dog Rib Indians has no other aim than mere slaughter. In the savages’ opinion, bravery in war is the highest virtue. In the civilized state too, bravery is an object of admiration and one reason for the special respect commanded by that estates in which bravery is the sole merit; and this is not without basis in... Read more
Leithart
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