A Rarity Among Rarities

There is nothing so rare in the world, as a human being of good will.

The role of good will was explored in 19th Century philosophy, and my recollection is that Immanuel Kant was a great exponent of the need for good will.

What, then, is good will? It is nothing more -- or less -- than the willingness, the desire, and the belief in the need to be as helpful and as generous to one's fellow human beings as one possibly can be.

I am an admirer of Kantianism, and I believe that Professor Kant helped elaborate on what it means to be a good person. I think that he helped established a very good rationalist basis for ethics and morality in a post-modern world, and one far better than the so-called "post-modernists" of today. Immanuel Kant, living in the 18th Century, saw that the future was one of challenge. He spoke of things that most people did not believe possible -- the existence of things beyond the human ken, a scientific version of Plato's cave. Of all the European rationalists, he is foremost among my heroes.

Despite his rationalism, he was also a deeply respectful, deeply religious man. As professor at Konigsberg, he conveyed his respect for future generations, bowing before his students, telling them that he was humbled by the presence of so many scholars and representatives of the potential for a the greatness of the future.

I am saddened that in the world of today, we have no equivalent scholar, other than the religious ones that delve deep into the mystical surroundings of ancient texts, for all their tremendous contributions and value to society. I think that a Kant of today would be a Galileo of ethics, a post-post-Aristotelian who could reduce some of our most perplexing dilemmas into more easily cognizable precepts -- equations, if you will, of the social condition. And all I have read, all I have seen, all I have hoped for, in science fiction such as Star Trek and beyond, expresses my personal, internal need to discern this system of cognition, a firmly grounded, well-defended route toward moral certainty.

The journey continues. Morality, no less than death itself, is the undiscovered country.