“She had never known any torment like this. This mixture of intimacy
and inaccessibility, of repulsion and attraction, of hopeless loss and hope
that all might yet be regained—this confused sensation seemed to become a
crimson glow in the darkness, its incandescent rays fi lling the room scorching
her breast, drawing from her. . . . one long wail!” (Alexandr Solzhenitsyn,
November 1916, trans. H. T. Willetts (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
1999), 695).
I received this quote from a Professor of mine. I'm sharing it because it's so vividly portrays my problem with Immanuel Kant. I'm studying politics and friendship in a political science class this semester, and a few weeks ago we were discussing in class Kant's work, titled The Metaphysics of Morals.
Quite honestly, this class has been painful. It's been a struggle, trying to comprehend, and organize all these modern philosophers in my mind. But I think Kant has taught me something.
At the end of the day, Kant is all about the law. Individuals should follow the Categorical Imperative, and that will lead you to moral development. Be virtuous for the sake of virtue. Fulfill your moral duty, because it's the right thing to do. With every duty there corresponds a right. His philosophy is so structured; it makes me feel boxed in. His view of friendship seems like a cold discourse between people as a response to fulfill their moral obligations to each other, and to use one another to cultivate their own perfection.
Kant sees friendship as this balance between love, and respect. Love is irrational, and draws people closer together. Respect, as Kant sees it, keeps people at a distance. This is because individuals are ultimately responsible for their own person actions. Kant is also weary of betrayal when individuals disclose too much information with each other. If we love too much, we expose ourselves, and if we respect too little we hurt the rights of others to be their own individual. This quote by Solzhenitsyn describes Kantian friendship for me.
How do we love, and build meaningful (virtuous) friendships with each other? Can we do this while maintaining respect between each other? Friendship love for me, is more complicated. Maybe not complicated, but more holistic--more round, than Kant's structured box of friendship. Moral laws, like the Categorical Imperative are important to give us directions, but Kant fails to tell us what love really is. Friendship is not a balance between love and respect, I think it's both at one time. The feelings of the woman in the quote, of both love and respect more accurately describe human relationships in reality.
