Man shoots another man over Immanuel Kant

A man shot another man over an argument about the philosophy of Immanuel Kant in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. Details are sparse, but beer, still in containers, was involved.

According to reports, the men were in their 20s. They went into a small grocery store and were apparently discussing something about the theories of Kant, the German philosopher who is best known for his "Critique of Pure Reason". (Get it? Reason? And shooting your friend over it?)

So these guys make it to the checkout stand and they're waiting in line. But their argument gets really passionate and the young men starting fighting about it physically. Like they were punching each other. Then, one guy pulls out a gun and shoots the other guy several times. But this gun, it's not a serious, deadly gun. It's a kind of bibi gun shooting rubber or plastic pellets. So the guy who got shot probably felt some pain, and his pride probably took a hit, but he was OK. He was sent to the hospital, in any case.

The shooter, however, now faces up to 15 years in jail, according to reports, for the intentional infliction of bodily harm. If he actually does get put away, he'll probably have tons of time to read big books about big ideas and think about the deeper meanings of right and wrong. So maybe that's where the real learning will happen, after all.

This story was reported all over, even by newswires, such as Reuters. What is interesting about this is none of the reports have any information about who these men are, when this shooting took place, or most importantly, which aspect of Kant's philosophy lead to the dispute. But you know, it's funny 'cause it's Russians, philosophy, beer and a shooting, so everyone shared the story.

Kant, who is from what is now Kaliningrad, but was a part of Prussia when he was alive, is all about duty-based morality. That means he thought what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong and that's that. He probably would have been upset by what happened b