The Problem of the Possibility of an Artificial Moral Agent in the Context of Kant’s Practical Philosophy
The question of whether an artificial moral agent (AMA) is possible implies discussion of a whole range of problems raised by Kant within the framework of practical philosophy that have not exhausted their heuristic potential to this day. First, I show the significance of the correlation ...
Categorical Moral Requirements
This paper defends the doctrine that moral requirements are categorical in nature. My point of departure is John McDowell’s 1978 essay, “Are Moral Requirements Hypothetical Imperatives?”, in which McDowell argues, against Philippa Foot, that moral reasons are not conditional upon agents’ ...
Who is Rationalising? On an Overlooked Problem for Kant’s Moral Psychology and Method of Ethics
I critically examine the plausibility of Kant’s conception of rationalising, a form of self-deception that plays a crucial role for Kant’s moral psychology and his conception of the functions of critical practical philosophy. The main problem I see with Kant’s conception is that there are no theory-independent criteria to determine whether an exercise of rational capacities constitutes ...
The Role of the Sublime in Kant’s Religion: Moral Motivation and Empirical Possibility
I show that Kant’s depiction of the christic figure in Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason is not contingent but explains how this figure functions in two essential ways: as a representation of a maximum of morality that can ground our moral disposition and in so doing acts as a standard for morality. More precisely, the following argument is made: 1) the sublime nature of the image of Christ — as an image of universal respect for the law — awakens ...
Moral inscrutability and self-constitution in Kant (translated from the English by V. Belonogova and D. Khizanishvili, edited by V. Chaly)
... Boundaries of Mere Reason to demonstrate the existence of evil disposition (Gesinnung). The author be¬lieves that, in this work, Kant introduces two innovations in respect of the fundamental project presented in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. He emphasises that freedom is not justified and postulates a transcendental structure similar to the unity of transcendental apperception in order to unify all volitions of an agent and make the initial application of freedom possible. The first ...
Frolova Ye. The theoretical and methodological issues of the revival of natural law
This article considers the understanding of natural law from the perspective of neo-Kantian legal philosophy of the late 19th/early 20th century and the problem of correlation between changing rules of law and the unchanged form of moral prescriptions.The author focuses on the development of Kantian approach in solving the problem of moral philosophy. The essence of morals is revealed not in the creation of ideal projects but rather in the need for action: the moral law must be ...
Naturalising Kant
The third formulation of the Categorical Imperative rarely receives the attention devoted to its predecessors. This paper aims to develop a naturalistic approach to morality inspired by Kant’s conception of moral agents as legislating in a Kingdom of Ends. Positions derived from the third formulation, John Rawls’s Kantian Constructivism and T. M. Scanlon’s Contractualism, cleave closely to Kant in idealising ...
Kant and the New Enlightenment: On the Balance between Duty and Utilitarian Ends
... theory of J. Habermas and the justice theory of J. Rawls. The overall conclusion is that Kant’s philosophy is not a philosophy of exclusion, capitalist values and utilitarianism and is not their ideological basis.
Anscombe, E., 1958. Modern Moral Philosophy. Philosophy. The Journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, 33(124), pp. 1-19.
Bakhurst, D., 2022. Categorical Moral Requirements. Kantian Journal, 41(1), pp. 40-59.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5922/0207-6918-2022-1-2
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Castillio, М., 2013....
Der Schatten der Tugend. Kant über die unergründliche Tiefe des Herzens
Among the most peculiar traits of Kant’s critical philosophy is the contention that, while we can know our moral maxims and can thus reflect on our actions from a moral point of view, we cannot really know whether in a given situation our actions are actually motivated by those maxims. This means that, although we have a firm sense of our moral duties, we ...
Feyerabend’s Natural Law Notes and their significance for Kant studies. Preface
... demonstrate that the basic principles of Kant’s philosophy of right are not a late production of the philosopher, but they have been formed already in the middle of 80’s of 18th century. Therewith we can use this lectures notes for the studies of Kant’s moral philosophy too, because of their closeness to the Foundations of Metaphysics of Morals, what can help us to understand some not clear aspects of Kant’s ethical thought. One of such questions is the question of moral motivation, and namely how ...
Kantian ethos in J. Rawls’s political philosophy
... rather than a specific concept (for instance, the categorical imperative). This article identifies the intersections between Rawls’s and Kant’s ideas, as well as their differences. Kant and Rawls have much in common. Rawls agrees with Kant that moral philosophy has to depart from commonplace human reason; the content of "political justice" can be an object of construction; construction presupposes the use of practical rather than pure reason; moral philosophy requires a complex concept ...
Kant on Human Dignity: Autonomy, Humanity, and Human Rights
This paper explores the new frontier within Kantian scholarship which suggests that Kant places so much special importance on the value of rational nature that the supreme principle of morality and the concept of human dignity are both grounded on it. Advocates of this reading argue that the notion of autonomy and dignity should now be considered as the central claim of Kant’s ethics, rather than the universalisation of maxims. Kant’s ...
Kant als Mystiker? Zur These von Carl Arnold Wilmans’ dissertatio philosophica
... Wilmans’ dissertation. Furthermore, the focus of my study is directed towards Kant’s essay On a Newly Arisen Superior Tone in Philosophy. I show that the central Kantian theorem of the fact of reason converges with his doctrine of respect to the moral law as intelligible feeling. This rapprochement allows the latter to play an argumentative role that, by serving as ratio cognoscendi of freedom, is also of epistemic value. Kant’s practical philosophy turns out to be based on a quasi-phenomenological ...
Kants praktischer Platonismus
At the centre of discussion lies the reception of Plato’s philosophy, particularly his theory of Ideas, in Kant’s moral philosophy, his ethics and his doctrine of right. Kant saw himself as a follower of Platonism insofar as its anti-empiricist principles of human conduct are concerned, although his own version of practical rationalism differs considerably from ...
Moral theology and the cosmological argument. Comments and delibera¬tions on a little-known Reflection of Kant
... the 1920s but otherwise neglected in the Kant literature. This small 8 x 6.3 cm sheet belonged to the manuscript collector Oskar Ulex (1852—1934), who appears to have bought it from a dealer in France. Writing covers both sides of the sheet, with moral theology discussed on one side, and the cosmological proof on the other. A transcription and description of the sheet is provided, followedby a “Question & Answer” with the goal of dating the notes describing the two separate arguments for the ...
Reputation core of Russian authorities: the case of the regional level of executive power
... the success of the authorities’ political, economic, and social positions, as well as the overall competitiveness and efficiency of the country, ultimately leading to the development of the state. Researchers note that citizens have a request for morale in politics, which creates the potential for value-based agreement between authorities and society. Moral principles and norms ensure the cohesion of society; they prevent the alienation of people from authorities and increase their motivation ...
Why Kant’s “Ethical State” Might Prove Instrumental in Challenging Current Social Pathologies
... “juridico-civil (political) state”, an “ethico-civil state”, uniting human beings “under laws of virtue alone”, needs to be established and cultivated. Kant’s claim is discussed in comparison with “postmetaphysical” conceptions of morality, as maintained by Rawls and Habermas. These prove deficient owing to their contract-based approach. Important in the examination of the key idea of the “state of virtue” is Kant’s thesis that such a state “cannot be realized (by human ...
Kant and the Constitution of Russian Federation
... articles of Constitution require significant improvement so that they adhere to the letter and the spirit of Kant’s ideas on state and law. The article stresses the need to take into account two provisions of Kant’s philosophy: the complementarity of morals and law and support for traditional family values. The legal discussions on the essence of constitutionalism, supremacy of law, and constitutional state lack philosophical depth and consideration of the sources of these phenomena. Without a philosophical ...
Kant on evil in the human nature
... the key to understanding Kant’s approach to the problem of evil in the differentiation of the levels of the existing and the due in his theory. The article has the following structure: first, the author emphasis that, for Kant, evil is a practical moral phenomenon unlike, for example, metaphysically interpreted evil. It is shown that the problem of evil is closely connected to that of the nature or essence of a human being. The article presents an analysis of Kant’s notion of human ‘nature’....
Pure and Impure Philosophy in Kant’s Metaphilosophy
... follows. First, I discuss four main areas of pure vs. impure philosophy: (i) ‘pure logic’ vs. ‘applied logic’; (ii) ‘rational psychology’ vs. ‘empirical psychology’; (iii) ‘pure metaphysics of nature’ vs. ‘physics’ and (iv) ‘pure morality’ or a ‘metaphysics of morals’ vs. ‘moral anthropology’, ‘practical anthropology’ or ‘applied moral philosophy’. Based on this, I identify four key differences between pure and impure philosophy. Second, I critically examine ...
Broken Facets of Ethical Universalism. Commentary on the Book Universality in Morality
Some ideas expressed in the collective monograph Universality in Morality (2020), edited by Ruben Apressyan, are here critically examined. The book is based on the results of a large-scale study by professional ethical philosophers devoted to the question of the nature of universality in morality and the mechanisms ...
Revisiting the Maxim-Law Dynamic in the Light of Kant’s Theory of Action
A stable classification of practical principles into mutually exclusive types is foundational to Kant’s moral theory. Yet, other than a few brief hints on the distinction between maxims and laws, he does not provide any elaborate discussion on the classification and the types of practical principles in his works. This has led Onora O’Neill and Lewis Beck ...
Inadvisable Concession: Kant’s Critique of the Political Philosophy of Christian Garve
The starting point of my study is Kant’s remark to the effect that Garve in his treatise on the connection between morality and politics presents arguments in defence of unjust principles. Recognition of these principles is, according to Kant, an inadvisable concession to those who are inclined to abuse it. I interpret this judgement by making a detailed comparison ...
Is Spinoza’s Ethics Heteronomous in the Kantian Sense of the Term?
... that is not in harmony with such interpretations. In the course of the argument I discuss Kant’s concepts of autonomy and heteronomy showing how they refer to will and to ethics. Then I describe a group of interpretations which portray Spinoza’s moral theory as heteronomous. My critique begins by presenting some textual evidence which vividly contradicts some of the boldest heteronomous renditions of Spinoza’s ethics. Then I move on to argue for the existence of conditions in Spinoza’s thought ...
The content of morality as an object of constitutional and legal protection
The article develops the concept of «morality» and establishes its content as an object of constitutional and legal protection. The author analyzes some legal provisions related to the protection of public morality. Another issue which is considered in this publication is the views of researchers ...
John Rawls’ interpretation of categorical imperative in “Theory of Justice”
... Philosophical Review. 1995. 3/104.
6. Höffe O. Kants kategorischer Imperativ als Kriterium des Sittlichen // Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung. 1977. Bd 31, H. 3. S. 354—384.
7. Paton H. J. The categorical imperative: a study in Kant’s moral philosophy. London, 1947.
8. Rawls J. A theory of justice. Revised edition. Harvard University Press, 1999.
9. Rawls J. Lectures on the history of moral philosophy. Harvard University Press, 2000.
10. Rawls J. Political Liberalism. Columbia University ...
Moral and spiritual education in the conditions of civilisational challenges
This article stresses the central position of moral and spiritual education in the modern educational paradigm. The values and meanings associated with the notion of ‘moral and spiritual education’ are considered. The author stresses the relevance of reintroducing moral and spiritual education ...
The Embodied Practical Ideal: Kant’s Ethicotheology and Godmanhood
The metaphysical layer of what can be called philosophical Christology in Kant’s treatise on religion reflects his idea of the embodiment of the archetype of moral perfection. Kant raises the problem of the ontology of the ideal in the shape of the question about the conditions that make actual experience possible: the ideal of holiness resides in reason, i. e. in the human being, but the dominance of radical ...
God’s Law or Categorical Imperative: on Crusian Issues of Kantian Morality
The ethics of Kant and the ethics of Crusius are strikingly similar. This is manifested in a whole range of principles and concepts. Crusius’ moral teaching hinges on the rigorous moral law which has to be obeyed absolutely, and which makes it different from other prescriptions that are binding only to a relative degree. This is very close to the Kantian distinction between hypothetical and ...
Vernunft und Glaube. Zu Kants Deduktion der Gnadenlehre
... This reference to God implies that one makes oneself susceptive to the principle of the good instead of vainly trying to make it dependent on one’s own deeds and thoughts. The renunciation of the attempt to justify one’s evil disposition, i.e. the moral conversion to a good disposition, is thus enabled by the principle of the good. Thus one can reasonably hope to achieve goodness in one’s moral conduct because of God’s grace. A transcendental deduction (b) has to justify conditions that enable ...
Kantian Ethical Humanism in Late Imperial Russia
... humanism, Christian humanism, emerged slowly in nineteenth-century Russia under the influence of Slavophilism. The Slavophiles with a deep sense of religiosity rooted in an understanding of the Church Fathers. They rejected the role of reason in evaluating moral choices, relying on faith to reveal objective moral laws and rules. Their form of Christian humanism lay in a commitment to justice and respect for all human beings. However, the arguably most historically significant Christian humanist in this ...
Kants Freiheitsargument. Diskussion von Heiko Puls: Sittliches Bewusstsein und Kategorischer Imperativ in Kants Grundlegung: Ein Kommentar zum dritten Abschnitt. Berlin und Boston: De Gruyter, 2016. 318 S.
Heiko Puls’ work Sittliches Bewusstsein und Kategorischer Imperativ in Kants Grundlegung: Ein Kommentar zum dritten Abschnitt, presents an attempt to show that, in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant’s argumentation for the objective value of the categorical imperative is almost based upon the same principle as the one presented in the second Critique. More precisely, Puls claims that, like in the Critique of Practical Reason, the Groundwork ...
Morality and philosophical education
This article considers the possibility of philosophical education influencing moral consciousness in the conditions of contemporary societies. The author stresses the relevance of rational approach to moral issues from the perspective of contemporary philosophy and science. The institution of philosophical education is considered ...
The foundations of I. Kant’s and V. Solovyov’s moral philosophies
... obvious strenghts of Kant’s ethics, Solovjev finds, that because of its absolute formalism it doesn’t have the complete implementation in the objective world. Solovjev also sees as unsuccessful Kant’s attempt at overcoming subjectivism in the moral sphere. In Solovjev’s opinion, Kant’s postulates of practical reason don’t overcome subjectivism, but bring to the foundation of Kant’s ethic the double meaning and uncertainty. The author notes, that for all his respect to Kant’s ethic,...
Tool-Kit for Ethical Analysis of Video Games: Answer to the Challenges of the New Enlightenment
... of the individual so that each individual becomes conscious of sharing the destiny of the whole of mankind and the world. I argue that in the framework of Enlightenment 2.0 the Kantian concept of social development, which is closely linked with the moral ideal — the kingdom of ends — may form the basis of the concept of society in which individual freedom and social development are interconnected and the mutually determining elements of the human being in whom freedom can be exercised only if ...
From Kant to Frank: The Ethic of Duty and the Problem of Resistance to Evil in Russian Thought
... nonresistance derived from the Gospel into the ethics of duty borrowed from Kant. The Tolstoy version of this idea was challenged mainly from two directions: from the Kantian grounding of the legitimacy of coercion and attempts to bring in styles of moral thinking other than the ethic of duty. Ilyin’s apologia for the use of force in the struggle against evil prompted Russian émigré thinkers to take a closer look at Tolstoy’s ethical concept and pay attention to its positive content. On this ...
The Ethics of the Categorical Imperative. Lossky under the Influence of Kant
... perception of Kant. We are looking at a whole range of parallels and borrowings. My comparative analysis focuses on the following aspects: 1) definition and uses of the term “categorical imperative”, 2) free will as the condition of the possibility of moral action, 3) the cause of moral evil, 4) the role of the idea of God in ethics. As a result, I reveal how Lossky used elements of Kant’s practical philosophy as conceptual, terminological and rhetorical resources in his theonomic ethics, and how ...
Moral und Dogma: Alois Riehls Neukantianismus im Spannungsfeld zwischen Religion und Politik
... aim is to examine Alois Riehl’s contribution to the “culture war” (Kulturkampf) in the second half of the nineteenth century. We show that he used Kant’s autonomy principle to argue against the idea that religious dogmatism is a fundament of morality. We prove this thesis by focusing on the forgotten historical background, which is important for an understanding of Morals und Dogma. Originally this essay was an expert opinion for the court case of the socialist H. Tauschinski who was accused ...
Kant's basic idea
This article puts forward the idea that the basis of Kant’s philosophy is moral ontology dominated by things in themselves, which provide the basis for the moral world order: God, soul, and freedom. Kant's epistemology, teleology and anthropology are determined by the attempt to prove the possibility of such world order. The ...
Kant über die Eigenart der Moral und ihre Rolle im System der Sitten
Der Beitrag hat die Eigenart der Moral und ihrer Rolle im System der Sitten zum Gegenstand. Dabei wird ein Exkurs in die Geschichte der Sitten und der Rezeption der Kantischen Sitten-Lehre polemisierend vorgenommen. Die von Kant angeführten Beispiele für die Anwendung seiner Theorie ...
Family ethics and philosophy of love in Kant’s Lectures on Ethics
... love), further divided into the sensual and intellectual love. The sensual love of delight is identified with sexual love. The intellectual love of delight eludes definition, since such delight is difficult to perceive. The collision between vital and moral love results in a need to examine under what conditions relations between the sexes are compatible with morality. Such an examination is taking the form of an ethical and legal deduction of matrimony. Kant’s proof of the moral unacceptability ...
A triune community: Fichte’s family law against the background of Kant’s practical philosophy (I)
... gender and love, as well as Schopenhauer’s doctrine, which can be seen as a naturalistic profanation of Fichtean metaphysics of love. According to Fichte, sexual appeal takes on the shape of a self-sacrificing impulse of love in the soul and in the moral character of a woman; yet, only a man is capable of becoming aware of everything that is morally present in himself and of renouncing, out of his inborn magnanimity, all claims to unlimited dominance. It is the combination of both characters that,...
The formation of the political elite in Lithuania at the turn of the 1980s—1990s: the role of “moral politicians”
This article considers the trend of structural changes in the political elite of the Republic of Lithuania in the post-Soviet period through analyzing the role of the so-called “moral politicians” — intellectuals, artists, and cultural figures, who played a decisive role in the period of the communist system disintegration and further development of the country's policy. The role of the political elite, which is understood ...
The Boundaries of Ecological Ethics: Kant’s Philosophy in Dialog with the “End of Human Exclusiveness” Thesis
... teleological teaching Kant sees the mechanism of nature as the dependence of living things on forces that act in an unpremeditated manner. Recognition of these forces sets limits to humans’ instrumental attitude to nature and paves the way for them to become moral subjects. Thus, Kant’s teaching combines “the human exclusiveness thesis” and the intuitions of the representatives of deep ecology and the opponents of anthropocentrism as such.
Attfield, R., 1983. The Ethics of Environmental Concern....
Societal security in the Baltic Sea Region: the Russian perspective
... separatism, organized crime and corruption were identified.
To mitigate the risks listed above, Russia should seek economic growth, development of the country’s R&D capacity, “the preservation and augmentation of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values as the foundation of Russian society, and its education of children and young people in a civil spirit”.<7> This included “the introduction of a system of spiritual-moral and patriotic education of citizens”.
On July 21, 2020,...
Reclaiming the “Cultural Mandate”: The Idea of Sustainable Development in the Kantian Perspective
... in the report. Instead of the strategy of “return of the cultural mandate”, proposed at this time by the authors of the report, the Kantian answer to the crisis is a “Copernican turn” and re-direction of the cultivating effort to the inner moral development of the human being.
Bacon, F., 1952. Novum Organum. In: F. Bacon, 1952. Advancement of Learning. Novum Organum. New Atlantis. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, pp. 103-195.
Bacon, F., 2011. Valerius Terminus: of the Interpretation ...
Dialektik als Logik des Scheins. Zu Kants Lektüre von Michael Piccarts Isagoge
... Subjectum, táxis [griechisch] deniq; et diaíresis eis ta kephália [griechisch] breviter et succincte poponitur. Olim a Michaele Piccarto Professore Organico Altdorffino, aucta & Notis plurimus illustrata. A M. Joh. Conrado Dürrio S. S. Theol. et Philos. Moral. in illustri Acad. Altdorff. Prof. Pub. Praemissa est Epistola Viri Celeberrimi Hermanni Conringii, continens judicium de isto libello eiusdemq[ae], iterata editione. Altdorf: Georg Hagen.
Piccart, M., 1665. Isagoge in lectionem Aristotelis. Hoc ...
Kant in the Time of COVID
... inoculated first (vaccine distribution). Following Beauchamp and Childress’s principlism, adopted guidelines have tended to value both whole lives (survival to discharge) and life-years (survival for years past discharge). This process of collective moral reasoning has revealed our common commitment to both Kantian and utilitarian principles. For Kant, respecting people’s rights entails that we ought to value whole lives equally. Therefore we ought to allocate resources so as to maximise the number ...
Watershed or Cul-de-Sac? Disputes in the Theological Reception of Kant’s Philosophy
... than in those of earlier eras.
Anzenbacher, A., 1992. Einführung in die Ethik. Düsseldorf: Patmos.
Anzenbacher, A., 2002. Sozialethik als Naturrechtsethik. Jahrbuch für Christliche Sozialwissenschaften, 43, pp. 14-32.
Auer, A., 1984. Autonome Moral und sittlicher Glaube. 2. Auflage. Düsseldorf: Patmos.
Baur, F. C., 1827. Primae Rationalismi et Supranaturalismi historia capita potiora, Pars II: Comparatur Gnosticismus cum Schleiermacherianae theologiae indole (Tübinger Osterprogramm). Tübingen: ...
Kantian Approaches to Human Reproduction: Both Favourable and Unfavourable
... the debate has barely begun. What might philosophers have said, or what did they say, about human life itself and its value to merit reproduction? Herein it is useful to look to Kant, who wrote much on whether, by reproducing, humans do wrong or right morally. Two main arguments are put forward and assessed: one examining whether perfect or imperfect duties condone reproduction, the other whether Kant’s teleological or, in the opposite sense, his eschatological outlooks can salvage reproduction. ...