In another possible world, more predictable perhaps than the one in which we live, instead of rushing every morning to check the latest news on Russia’s war in Ukraine, I would be regularly monitoring its weather forecast. I would be eagerly anticipating a long-planned trip to Kaliningrad to attend the birthday party of my favourite philosopher, and, apparently, also one of Vladimir Putin’s: Immanuel Kant. A flight to Moscow and a domestic transfer would have been booked for the end of this month, and I would be romantically, uncritically, somewhat inappropriately for a Kantian, daydreaming about my arrival.
在另一個可能的世界裏,也許比我們生活的這個世界更容易預測,我不會每天早上急匆匆地檢視俄羅斯在烏克蘭戰爭的最新訊息,而是會定期監測加里寧格勒的天氣預報。我會熱切地期待著計劃已久的加里寧格勒之行,參加我最喜歡的哲學家伊曼努爾•康德(Immanuel Kant)的生日派對,顯然,他也是弗拉迪米爾•普丁(Vladimir Putin)最喜歡的哲學家之一。飛往莫斯科的航班和國內轉機已經訂好,我將浪漫地、不加思索地、有點不恰當地爲我的康德之行做著白日夢。(加里寧格勒原名柯尼斯堡,是位於波羅的海沿岸的一個俄羅斯飛地,這裏曾是普魯士王國的一部分。在第二次世界大戰結束後,此地區由蘇聯接管,並在1946年更名爲加里寧格勒。這個城市在歷史上以其哲學和文化遺產而聞名,德國哲學家康德的大部分生活和工作都在這裏進行。)