the consolations of philosophy

after spending hours in the central library reading bites and pieces of philosophy books, i leave with a surprisingly shiny pearl from immanuel kant, no less: Act that you use humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end, never merely as a means. i write it, again, here, because it never fails to surprise me how i feel i remember things, only to forget completely about them months later. i used to be able to discuss kant's critique of pure reason before, did you know that? i used to call up to mind complete poems by sylvia plath and t.s. eliot whenever i felt the need. i used to keep levinas's totality and infinity at my bedside table for chicken-soup comfort. it's gathered dust now; i know that when i read it again, it will be as a stranger's words.

so it doesn't give me an ounce of guilt to have spent the day with piles and piles of cherished books scattered on my library carrel, usmle reviewer tucked neatly in my messenger bag. on the contrary, it's the philosophers who reprimand me, again and again, for having deserted them.

and on a slightly related note, i give you a little kant from calvin and hobbes. i adore them! {clicky to enlarge}