Kant & Co.

Having Trouble With Kant?

Peter Rickman says you’re not the only one.

A competitor on a BBC quiz show thought that Immanuel Kant was a football player. As a layman he can be forgiven; even if philosophy were more widely taught in schools, it would probably not include Kant for kids. It is harder to forgive those who teach philosophy, yet getting Kant wrong is something a surprising number of eminent philosophers do, and sometimes in interesting ways.

The late Anthony Quinton is an outstanding example. Having been a fellow of several Oxford colleges, President of Trinity College and President of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, he was clearly part of the UK’s philosophical establishment.

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