Last week, an exhibition dedicated to the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant – the 300th anniversary of whose birth falls next Monday – opened in Tartu, one of this year's European Capitals of Culture. Kant can be considered the only great figure of Western philosophy who sprang from a cultural space close to Estonia and whose immediate students and associates taught at the then newly reopened University of Tartu. As such, the university’s library has a considerable collection of original manuscripts and correspondence, and this is the first time it has gone on display on such a large scale.
In his main work Critique of Pure Reason, Kant says that human beings have certain broad, deep interests or longings for this world by their very nature. According to Kant, there are three essential questions within a person to which they seek an answer: Is the soul immortal? Is there free will? And does God exist? Culture also seeks answers to these questions, in its own way. In every work of art there is a certain longing which (or the origin of which) we cannot always explain. Every creator is interested in these questions from their own perspective, and these questions unite humanity, since due to the limitations of our reasoning, we cannot arrive at the final answers. But still we ask.
A person should be guided by these questions – whether the soul is immortal, the will is free and God exists. From this emerges morality. We can see that the Russians do not know about Kant and have no morality. We must do everything to change this, and so that the rest of the world retains its morality. Culture helps us to do this.
The most important purpose of culture is to show us human nature and its contradictions. This is something that science cannot give us, because it does not obey logic. Life is paradoxical. It helps to understand, it helps to see different points of view and starting points. People need other people in their lives who are somewhat similar to them and yet also sufficiently different, since looking in the mirror is not a way forward. Therefore, we can perceive phenomena from another cultural space as foreign, but at the same time understand them. And find answers.
Culture has the ability to change a person, to make them think differently, because it affects us personally. Everyone watches a play or film through the prism of their own life; we perceive a piece of music or a literary work according to the life we have lived. It becomes personal, and often has a greater impact than the environment or the society in which we live. We find answers in culture, and empathy and compassion grows within us. We become richer internally. Culture nurtures us.
I hope that with this visit we will be able to establish deeper cultural ties that help us build a better future together. There could be nothing more beautiful than to bring the music of Arvo Pärt to Germany as performed by our Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Chamber Orchestra, or to present an exhibition of our great artist Konrad Mägi, or to make films with your filmmakers in both Germany and Estonia, or to put on collaborative theatre productions – in much the same way as some German mothers already read Andrus Kivirähk's Der Schiet und das Frühjar to their children as a bedtime story, or Estonian fathers read Otfried Preussler's Krabat to their child. Which is truly beautiful.
Immanuel Kant also guides us to experience beauty, as this gives us a sense of well-being. We have to recognize what is beautiful to us personally and pursue it. And that’s why we need culture. You have to find what makes you happy. That makes us want to be better people.
I wish you all an abundance of cultural collaborations and connections which provide the kind of beauty that makes us all better people!
I thank you for your warm welcome.
