A brief breakdown of Joe Biden's Immanuel Kant obsession

Joe Biden.
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Joe Biden may want to make his campaign slogan... dare we say it... "Yes we Kant."

On Tuesday, the former vice president made his second campaign stop of the 2020 election cycle, deciding at some point that Iowa needed a dose of German philosophy to fully understand his platform. Biden dug out a quote about the dignity of work during that event, attributing it not to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), but to Immanuel Kant.

See more

Of course, that's far from Biden's only display of Kantian prowess. In his first campaign rally on Monday, Biden also delivered a paraphrased Kant line to a Pennsylvania crowd, saying "people should never be treated as a means to an end, but an end in themselves." Flash back just a few days before that, and you'll find that Biden gave a very similar statement to the hosts of ABC's The View.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
See more

With a tad more Google searching, one can find an even earlier recorded instance of Biden sharing some Kantian wisdom. At the beginning his book Promise Me, Biden relays Kant's "rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for," which NPR took as a hint in 2017 that Biden would eventually run for president again.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.