| | "Now consider the case of Kant, whom I take to be the negative counterpart of Ayn Rand. To anyone capable of understanding Kant's ideas, the first thing to say about them is: "false." But implicit in the all-embracing war on reality they represent is a second verdict: "wicked." The cause of such ideas has to be methodical, lifelong intellectual dishonesty; the effect, when they are injected into the cultural mainstream, has to be mass death. There can be no greater evasion than the open, total rejection of reality undertaken as a lifetime crusade. And only evasion on this kind of scale, evasion as the motor of an entire philosophic system, makes possible and necessary all the atrocities of our age. (For details, see The Ominous Parallels.)"
"Whoever understands the Critiques, yet urges "toleration" of Kant (or his ilk), or tells us to practice cognition on his ideas but not moral evaluation, has rejected self-preservation as a goal. He has rejected the principle of justice and the entire realm of moral value. He has said that man's life or death should not be a ruling concern in anyone's mind."
I think this is a good reason why a certain amount of "toleration" is required. The Rand/Peikoff understanding of Kant is widely rejected by professional philosophers. I don't believe Peikoff is an expert of Kant. If Peikoff is wrong about Kant, then he is probably wrong in ascribing all sorts of bad effects to Kant's writings.
|
|
