Week 1 prompt: anti-Kantian

Brooke Kihle

Dr. Adam Johns

English Composition 0200

3 September 2014

Week 1: Anti-Kantian

“I want to be able to look at and into a juniper tree, a piece of quartz, a vulture, a spider, and see it as it is in itself, devoid of all humanly ascribed qualities, anti-Kantian, even the categories of scientific description” (Abbey 7). Abbey displays his internal goal of losing his previous instinctual way of thinking, which is to already have an inclination of objects, animals, ideas before you truly observe them.  We know Abbey believes that he thinks this way now and that he no longer wants to think ‘like a human’ from Kantian or actually Abbeys usage of “anti-Kantian”; which comes from Immanuel Kant’s theory of metaphysics.

Immanuel Kant is a famous philosopher in the 18^th century. He most famous writing, The Critique of Pure Reason explains this theory of metaphysics,

“But it quickly discovers that, in this way, its labours must remain ever incomplete, because new questions never cease to present themselves; and thus it finds itself compelled to have recourse to principles which transcend the region of experience, while they are regarded by common sense without distrust. It thus falls into confusion and contradictions, from which it conjectures the presence of latent errors, which, however, it is unable to discover, because the principles it employs, transcending the limits of experience, cannot be tested by that criterion” (Kant preface).

Kant questions what humans can know. He believes that human knowledge cannot extend previous information and is in fact restricted to only what the mind has already had access to. He further details that we view non-human things through human values and compare and contrast objects such. This creates a viewpoint based off of human value and therefore any object perceived is through human ideals. Essentially Kant discourages the idea of pure innovation and originality, nothing can come from nothing. Abbey wishes to be anti-Kantian in the sense that he wants to view everything with no prior intentions, with no prior theories and thus completely understand such object.

Abbey states he wants to view animals and nature “devoid of all humanly ascribed qualities” and believes he can do such. This is one solution in furthering himself from “human-like” thinking and to achieve being anti-Kantian. One example of Abbeys path to transformation is in the chapter “The Serpents of Paradise”, when Abbey observes a gopher snake he first becomes ‘friends’ with the snake inviting it into his home and becoming hurt when it disappears. However we see Abbey’s transformation into anti-Kantian when another gopher snake appears with a mate. This time Abbey strictly observes the snakes “like a living caduceus they wind and unwind about each other in undulant, graceful, perpetual motion, moving slowly across a dome of sandstone” (Abbey 20). He lets go of his previous image of the snake and views this one with a blank slate. He purely takes note of each action and draws conclusions based on the events occurring right then and there. This is clearly anti-Kantian thinking and therefore proves that Abbey can in fact be anti-Kantian.

Another example is Abbey completely separating himself from human contact through his job as a park ranger. This severance from human lifestyle further distances him from living and therefore thinking like a human. Since Abbey is ‘one with nature’ he can focus on being anti-Kantian and see nature as it is. Through time and dedication all prior instinctual human viewpoints will be eradicated and replaced with a clean open-mindedness.   Abbeys strong passion to become anti-Kantian and his restrictive lifestyle foreshadow that he will be successful.

Through Abbey’s multiple attempts at changing his mindset he displays to the reader a strong desire to become anti-Kantian. Replacing prior knowledge with pure observations of animals like the gopher snake as well as removing himself from his previous lifestyle surrounded with human characteristics are just some examples Abbey will achieve his goal. He gives the reader an atmosphere of strong determination and true passion for nature that supports the belief that Abbey can be anti-Kantian.

 

Works Cited:

 

Abbey, Edward. Desert Solitaire: The First Morning & A Season in the Wilderness.  New York: Touchstone, 1990. 

Kant, Immanuel. The Critique of Pure Reason: Transcendental Aesthetic. Jonathan Bennett, 2007

Rohlf, Michael, "Immanuel Kant", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)