8/4     \- you know i think it is reasonable to claim
           "you cant be serious" [NPI] about being a
           Kantian, but to claim that it is vague is
           silly. an entire approach to ethics is named
           after kant ... that's not my doing. it would
           be more not less obscure to have said i am
           a deontologist than to say kantian. --psb
           \_ Kant's contributions to ethics are immense.  So are
              Christian contributions, but hardly anyone would answer
              my question with "I am a Christian."  You can be a
              Kantian liberal, a Kantian conservative, or a Kantian
              anything in between.  Heck, I could be considered a
              Kantian, too.  Bringing up Kant in this context clarifies
              nothing other than the fact that you have read Kant.
              Good for you.  So have I. -- ilyas
              \_ A phrase like "I am a Catholic" would have more meaning
                 if more people who would claim to be really are.  The
                 teachings of the Church is treated more like recommended
                 guidelines or maybe merely ideas for consideration.  Many
                 Catholics I meet remind me so much of those apocryphal
                 vegetarians who eat chicken or fish.  It's not clear the
                 teachings of Kant has been diluted as much as the teachings
                 of the Church or of the Popes, so "I am a Kantian" probably
                 is more meaningful than "I am a Catholic", let alone "I am
                 a Christian."
                 \_ You can view 'teachings of Kant' as a distillation of
                    Christian teachings by a very intelligent man (Kant was
                    deeply religious).  (There is much more to Kant, of course).
                    I can tell by what little I know of Partha's life that
                    Partha is not a Christian, so certainly isn't a Kantian in
                    any sort of hardcore sense.  The Kantian label clarifies
                    nothing for me. -- ilyas