Ripe TV

Hey all! It's Red from Ed and Red's Night Party!

I didn't know how to introduce everyone to my weird little world, so I sat on posting anything for a while, but then this excerpt from an email conversation I was having with a friend came up and I just HAD to share. It's an example of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant regarding practical freedom. Enjoy!

"I think that perhaps your professor's exclusion is plausible but unnecessary. Evil is evil, according to Kant, because it does not follow the principles of reason, and therefore leads to less freedom than the alternative. Here's an example, continuing to use our good friend Skeletor.

"Skeletor has an unreasonable hatred of his brother, King Randor. This hatred, as a basis for Skeletor's future acts, is, as stated, illogical. Because it is not rational, it leads Skeletor, an otherwise willfull and reasoned man, to commit acts that can be agreed to be 'evil' or 'illegal', because he's acting on sensual, immediate gratification instead of a long term, reasoned approach of 'what ought to be done'. This not only makes him easier to defeat for Randor's forces, led by He-Man -- a being founded on the reasoned choice of a teenaged boy to become the hero at Will -- but also leads him away from practical freedom: being a fugitive limits his movements and social interactions.

"But Skeletor is evil as opposed to incapable of reason because he is of sufficient intelligence and will to comprehend the potential consequences of his actions, yet ignores this reasoned approach. If Skeletor were somehow incapable of making this decision (in the way, perhaps, that a robot such as Psy-Clone or Faker is, therefore lacking the same a priori knowledge of Skeletor) then he would not be perceived, in the same way, or be evil, as he lacks the freedom inherent in the opportunity to make a choice based on reason. Faker and Psy-Clone cannot be seen to be free in a practical sense, because they lack the understanding of ideas based on choice. They follow a program created by Skeletor, the parameters of which do not allow reason. Skeletor's other henchmen, however, are provided with moral choice, and have therefore forsaken practical freedom by following Skeletor instead of reasoned morality, despite Skeletor's frequent assertions that they are too stupid to know the difference."

There we go! Let it never be said that I follow a well-travelled path!