Sunday, May 8, 2016

Kantian Philosophy and Australian Cigarette Packaging

The week before last I was surprised when some Australians in my company took out their cigarettes [they smoke and drink like fiends and lords, just so you know] and was surprised by the dramatic messages and lurid photos that appeared the packs.  Apparently, the Australian government, and soon the nations of the EU, will sport such details on tobacco products to force people to quit smoking.  You see, that's the job of government.

Long-time readers of The Coracle have noted how many of the government's initiatives in controlling human behavior have both failed and encouraged people to engage in the opposite of the intended effect.  Sometimes, the need for control, which is the definition of government in the 21st century, overrides even common sense and science, as in dietary rules that turn out to be unhealthy and wrong.

This had me thinking, naturally, of Immanuel Kant the other day.  Of course it did.  Kant's philosophy was one that stressed the post-Enlightenment understanding that the human race had reached its point of maturity and no longer required kings to guide our moral and practical thinking, and no longer required us to be slaves and serfs to the ruling class.  He would have been appalled at the current level of government intrusion, control, and legal hectoring.

Kant complained of having “a book that thinks for me, a pastor who acts as my conscience, a physician who prescribes my diet”, which means “I have no need to exert myself”. These “guardians” treat people like “cattle”, he said, making us view “the step to maturity, not only as hard, but as extremely dangerous”.
Thus says an essayist in a recent newspaper article.

More of Kant may be read here.