Doing a Kant (was Re: Rhetorical Gestures)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Hi Doug:
>>doing a Kant
>
>I don't know what this means. If I read Milton, and derive
>inspiration and pleasure from it, does that mean I'm "doing a
>Milton"? How about that creepy fascist Pound, who nonetheless wrote
>some fine poetry? Could you explain the difference between engaging
>critically but productively with Kant or any other DWEM and "doing"
>him?

Reading Kant is not the same as doing a Kant.  The latter involves
subscribing in some way to Kant's epistemology and ontology, with their
attendant political implications.  Some postmodern philosophers, such as
Zizek, do so explicitly, while others do so implicitly.  The same must be
said for reading Nietzsche and doing a Nietzsche, reading Heidegger and
doing a Heidegger, reading Hegel and doing a Hegel, etc.  Read Kant, but
don't do a Kant.

Yoshie