Kant in ‘08

Thanks to a post on the private Harry Binswanger List, I found these two funny political ads that attack Immanuel Kant.  Unfortunately, it is hard to generate much enthusiasm for the candidates offered as alternatives - Friedrich Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard.  (Bad vs. Badder.  Sound familiar?)

A big part of the joke, of course, is that the ads are absurdly technical philosophically, which contrasts sharply with the generally low level of political advertisement that we are accustomed to.  So, on the surface, it seems that the ad is funny precisely because nobody would vote according to such abstract philosophical matters.  Yet, on a deeper level, it is precisely philosophy that underpins not only elections but all cultural trends.