Immanuel Kant was a prominent enlightened German philosopher, who placed a strong emphasis on the importance or reason, morality and truth. His philosophical framework holds that there are objective moral truths that we can and should strive to uncover through the use of reason and logic. He writes:” If the truth shall kill them, let them die.” It means people should die but truth should not die. Man is mortal and truth is immortal. One of Kant’s greatest contribution to philosophy was his moral theory, deontology, which judges actions according to whether they adhere to a valid rule or not.
He says: “ The only thing that is good in itself is the Good Will.” It means one should have positive mindset and nourish good intentions for everyone. The people who are jealous and vindictive are not humans but are beasts. In one of my Urdu poems there is a couplet that means “ Dog is the any of dog and barks on seeing the other dog, the man who does not love the other men, can he be called a human being?” Immanuel Kant believed that reason should be used to determine how people ought to act. He argued that the moral law is a truth of reason, and hence that all rational creatures are bound by the same moral laws. He opinionated that morality and reason are intertwined. So, we call him the philosopher who promoted moral values and intellectual superiority and profundity.
I would briefly comment on his theory. According to Immanuel Kant truth is an Absolute Value which is essential for a healthy and just society. It is not a Relative Value. It was Willam Shakespeare who in his famous play “ Hamlet” had written:” There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” This quote has brought immense damage to the moral values and marred the ethical structure worldwide. According to divine scriptures good is good and bad is bad. Honesty is a good value and dishonesty is a bad practice. Speaking truth is a positive and virtuous value, while to lie is a negative and vicious practice. According to all religions virtue is virtue and vice is vice. The prophets and moral philosophers like Immanuel Kant preached and promoted ethical values for the establishment of a healthy and positive society. Truth is truth and falsehood is falsehood. If we mix them, then the whole fabric of society and morality will collapse. Truth has an intrinsic value, power, magnificence and didactic weight that surpasses and supersedes all troubles, turmoils and tests. Truth gives Inner strength for patience and forbearance. Immanuel Kant’s quote speaks to an unwavering commitment to the exquisite conviction and importance of truth- seeking.
From religious scripture referencing to the Holy Bible the core and crux is that “ God is Truth in Love.” The Holy Quran time and again asserts on the importance of truth and says:” Speak Truth.”
Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is pessimism and a radical Skepticism that condemn existence. “ Skeptical Essays” is a book written by eminent British philosopher Bertrand Russell. Nihilism, Skepticism and agnosticism are the products of faithless ideology. I endorse the views of Immanuel Kant that Truth is the measuring rod of good and bad. Rationality is the foundation of morality. Once, I had written in one of my articles that any irrational act is immoral, inhumane and irreligious. I am a staunch supporter of religion based on rationality. Aldous Huxley was an English writer and philosopher. He is known for being a humanist, which is the movement that stands in opposition to “ religious dogmas.” The opposition to irrational and inhumane dogmas is not opposition to divine revelation. His Perennial philosophy is based on Rational Religion. He saw philosophy as a tool for exploring the mysteries of the Mind and expanding one’s awareness. In this regard, both Immanuel Kant and Aldous Haxley seem on one page of rational acceptance of truth, morality and faith.
Aldous Haxley was a Humanist. He did not discard religion. He discarded the irrational, illogical, inhumane and unnatural dogmas and rituals, which have crept into the vitals of all religions through the self styled custodians of religions in the shape of clergy and papacy. Nunnery and monkish style of life was criticized by the stalwarts of Protestantism Martin Luther and John Calvin and they opposed the monopoly and obduracy of Papacy of Catholics. All enlightened persons believe in the Spirit of all religions which is nobility, virtuosity, humility, humanity, spirituality, rationality, equality, fraternity, justice, love, truth, compassion, mercy and forgiveness but they do not believe in Blind Faith, and irrational and inhumane dogma, rites and rituals which are the creation of dogmatic hardliners, religious maniacs, bigots and fanatics.
They discard priesthood, asceticism, dogmatism, papacy, nunnery, monasticism, and sectarianism. The religion of prophets is different from the religion of priests.
I sum up the write up on the importance of truth with a poetic line of John Keats, who in his excellent poem titled “ Ode on a Grecian Urn” writes:
“ Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all.
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
Truth is beauty; falsehood is ugliness. Values are absolute values; they are not relative values.
