Kant on Human Evil

 

Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

– Immanuel Kant

I am always surprised by this quote. Kant is renowned for his monumental attempt to elucidate the proper functioning of human reason, his insistence that such reason could guide human ethics and government, his rigorous and comprehensive philosophical defense of freedom, and his great faith in and respect for the capacities of people. For many, he is the pin-up boy for modernity’s project of replacing the authority of religion with the authority of philosophy and science, for it’s celebration of technological, political, medical and economic progress, and for it’s liberating demand that people think for themselves. What then, is he doing saying something like the remark above?

I think Kant was saying, perhaps in a moment of frustration or somber reflection, that no matter what humanity accomplishes, no matter how era’s of thought and culture move on, no matter how much advancement is made in humanity’s ability to care for one another and improve life, humanity will always have an terrifying capacity for evil, and the ability to destroy. More than this, I think he was saying that the very best human achievements, particularly political achievements, will always contain knots and cracks, due to the ‘crookedness’ of human nature and ability.

To bring the idea forward a few centuries, Kant was saying both that it was unsurprising that something like the apartheid movement occurred in South Africa and, perhaps more sobering, that Obama’s best achievements will be full of knots and cracks. Why? Because out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made. This reflection seems particularly poignant coming from Kant.

What does this quote bring to mind for you?