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Both Sides Now



I wonder whether there has ever been a better lyrical expression of the epistemological side of Kantian philosophy than one finds in the Joni Mitchell song "Both Sides Now."

Let's leave aside the verses about life and love -- which may impinge upon the ethical side of Kantianism. The epistemological side is largely about the perception of material objects in time and space. Thus: clouds. Clouds are more permeable and have less definite boundaries than the usual examples, but they surely are material objects in some sense.

So Kant says to us that we can look at clouds from various partial perspectives, from up and down. Yet still, it will be the phenomenon (cloud's illusions) we recall.

We really won't know clouds at all.  
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