Cool birthdays are not evenly distributed. Some days, it is hard to find anyone to talk about. Look at Friday, for example—and it wasn’t even close to the worst. And then there are days like today that are overflowing with interesting people. Let’s start with Henry Fielding who was born on this day in 1707. He wrote Tom Jones and thus would be the standout guy most days. But alas, not today. Vladimir Lenin was born in 1870. And another notable Russian, novelist Vladimir Nabokov was born in 1899. Charles Mingus was born in 1922. On a normal day, any of these people could win the birthday prize.
The same goes for the living. Glen Campbell is 77 today. Jack Nicholson is 76. John Waters is 67. And Peter Frampton is 63. (Okay, maybe not him.)
But the day goes to Immanuel Kant who was born on this day back in 1724. He was an amazing thinker, but I don’t recommend trying to read him. It’s very difficult, painstaking work. You are better off with something like Roger Scruton’s Kant: A Very Short Introduction. After trying to read Kant in high school, I really got started with him by reading Ayn Rand and her obsequious follower Leonard Peikoff. She hated him and dismissed him so much that I knew there must be something to him. And there is. Lots. In fact, Rand’s primary critique that Kant is some kind of relativist who doesn’t believe in absolute reality is nonsense, but so too is Rand’s idea about objective reality. Is your brain starting to hurt? Imagine what fun awaits you!
Happy birthday Immanuel Kant!
Afterword
And there’s this: