My mother introduced me to Kantianism as a child

My mother and father introduced me to the idea of Kantianism early in my childhood. It goes something like this.

"Why did you leave the water running??????-What if everyone left the water running?????-Do you think the world has just an unlimted supply of water?-No!-It doesn't!!-Now go to your room!"

Or is was something else: lying, stealing, leaving the backdoor open and running the air conditioner at the same time.

I think most of your folks probably had a similar talk with you. I'm betting Kant did with 8 brothers and sisters and never living farther than 16 miles from the city he was born in. He was also raised by parents who lived by the Bible. Perhaps thats why his categorical imperative is reminiscent of the phrase, "Do unto other as you would have them do unto you".

This idea is nothing new. It just has the seasoning of an adult sitting down for 11 years to really think it through.

I know some of you might be openly dismissive of this guy. We've been living in the grip of Keyensian philosophy since the 1930's. Based on that philosophy we are the biggest debtor nation in the world and Social Security is the proverbial hairball that we can't seem to cough up.

Does Kantiansim work. Well every philosphy by its nature is extreme. However, from my own personnel experience, when I do things with a specific "what's in it for me attitude" versus just acting because its "the right things to do" I found less unforeseen good things come my way.

I haven't finished reading Chapter 2 yet but I have done some digging into Kant himself. Kant was the first to take Newtons work and theorize about nebula and galaxies. He did this when he was in his Twenties. He locked himself away for 11 years before publishing his master piece Critique of Pure Reason, now widely regarded as one of the greatest works in the history of philosophy.

For more info check out the wiki on Kant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant