Post Conscious

Kant’s categorical imperative holds that our reason dictates the foundational aspects of ethics. There is, in a basic sense, an underlying and universal reasoning beyond all distortion (culture, religion, society etc). I have never read Kant, and I will not lie about it as some pretentious person might act. But I wonder beneath all the helter skelter of Kant’s critiques (who have usually dumbed the argument down due to their even dumber examples of ethics) there is a feasible argument about the inhumanness of universalizing reason.

If someone desired sex with a stranger he can only be stopped by his reasoning. The reasoning could be a question of societal expectations, fear of STDs, avoidance of immorality etc. So then, should this reasoning apply to every thinking being? My basic understanding of Kant is that if this passes a universalization test (if you think this should apply for everybody else too) then it should apply. I think it does apply here, do we want a society full of sex maniacs or impulsive rapists? That may be extreme but then there is monogamy, adultery etc. stuff society likes to think about.

It fits the bill, the sex as an example I think it’s not dumbing down the example too much – it is something basic and foundational unlike other examples I have encountered so far: ‘gift giving’, ‘keeping promise’ or ‘having a cigarette’. Kant will not even turn in his grave for you.

If then I, the author of this post, want to have sex with a stranger. My innermost deepest desire is bodily contact with a passion so visceral that is has to happen with this stranger. If my reasoning says – fuck society, forget STD, fuck immorality – but fuck this person. The consequence of this is an intense and meaningful gratification not based on an impulse but an accumulation of careful desire (so much so it has to happen). This gratification is an act of humanness or survival, something embedded I think in a position of Kant’s categorical imperative or even higher – more human. Beyond Kant’s reasoning, I will fuck …

Am I then … immoral?

I shudder at the thought of Kant’s ethics (sometimes as an epitome of liberalism) [or a misreading of - perhaps mine] being reminiscent of religious tendencies.