Poker & Philosophy: Immanuel Kant
by Bodog Poker | Sep 16 2010
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher in the 18th century, hailing from the Prussian city of Könisberg. He's considered by theorists to be the last truly influential philosopher of modern Europe using the classic sequence of the Theory of Knowledgement. This includes thinkers like John Locke and David Hume, but Kant is notable for his creation of a new perspective on the form that continues to have a lasting impact. His Critique Of Pure Reason is a seminal text that looks into the limitations and structure of reason and logic itself and was followed with the Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of Judgment.
These works are why we're turning to him in today's Poker and Philosophy column: Kant spent a great deal of time questioning how much pure knowledge can actually contribute to a complete worldview versus the metaphysical issues. Working to create a compromise between the empiricists (who believed that knowledge can only be gained through experience) and rationalists (who worked to establish that knowledge gained through experience is open to doubt and that it's reason that helps us judge what is and isn't true.) Kant argued that reason without experience is only going to lead to false perceptions and experience is purely subjective without reason's application.
This is where poker comes into play: no amount of study applied to the game can make you a better player without applying the human factor to the game. Taking the rationalist point of view — believing that that you can learn the game's ins and outs from books and watching play — is nothing short of foolish because while blackjack and the like are games in which a player can actually predict what is going to happen next through enough study and practice, poker is a game that pits people against people. Human beings are wild, unpredictable things, occasionally making decisions that defy logic.
Hunches, gut feelings and bluffs are not parts of the rationalist's or empiricist's worldview; these are not things to which rote knowledge or reason alone can be applied to. Kant's views on beauty and our perception of it actually closely mirrors the way that poker works for many players: beauty is not a property of a piece of art on its own, but it's instead our consciousness that creates a pleasurable feeling based on the aesthetics of the work and how they align with our personal experiences and interests.
Poker players judge hands not only on the cards they are holding in front of them, but their position on the board and what happened in a previous hand in which one player went all-in after the fold while holding weak off-suited pocket cards and whether or not they've been playing tight and need to listen up their hand a bit along with a million other factors we never actually think about. These subconscious rumblings, this wash of absorbed knowledge and experience: that is what makes a poker player, not rote study or mere sticking to the same established rules in every situation. Use Kant's rationale and create your own poker philosophy that works for you. You may not even realize it as you're doing it, but that combination of experience and enlightenment can help you become better at your game.
