Immanuel Kant the Mystic?
Some time ago, I found this picture of Immanuel Kant on the web (I forgot which website) and used it on my page with Ethics essays. The interesting thing about this engraving is that Kant is surrounded by the mythical snake Ouroboros. I have yet to find out exactly what is meant with this etching, as the combination of Immanuel Kant and mysticism is a bit puzzling. I recently bought an English translation of the Critique of Pure Reason, which has this picture on the front page. According to the book, it is an engraving by J. Chapman. There is a John Gadsby Chapman (1808-1889) who was a Freemason, judging by the painting The Masters Carpet in the George Washington Masonic National Memorial. I would love to know more about this portrait of Kant and what the idea is between the combination of him and the mystical snake. Any answers?
Labels: philosophy, religion
posted by Peter Prevos | 19:31
3 Comments:
Does the snake perhaps merely represtent the humorous irony that reason or logic is ultimately circuitous and and self-defeating in the manner of the snake devouring itself? Perhaps, whether through a mystical experience or good reasoning, Kant (like Aquinas) saw on some level that everything he had written was "straw".
Don
Hi Don,
This is a very promising line of thought, which I will seek to explore further in the near futuire.
I am not aware of any circular reasnings in Kant (like in Descartes), but it could have to do with his Copernican Revolution, in which the observer becomes interlinked with the observed.
Peter
You are interested in magic but don't know the meaning of the image?
variously - it means unity, perfection, universality, totality -
In the case of Kant I suggest it alludes to the complete system of his philosophy.
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