Many people studying ethics for the first time are scared off by the first formulation of Kant’s categorical imperative: Act only on that maxim (principle) which you can at the same time will to be a universal law. You’re constrained to acting on principles that can be willed to be universal laws. But the easiest [...]
[This post is a continuation of Kantopias, Part 1]
So before we look at the details of these Kantopias, there is one last thing that Kant could have said in the third formulation of the Categorical Imperative, and didn’t. He could have argued that we should “act in accordance with universal laws for a merely possible [...]
It’s been a while since we’ve had a proper Kant post on the blog here, so let’s get to it. One of the least understood parts of Kant’s *Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals* is the third formulation of the Categorical Imperative, usually known as the “Kingdom of Ends” formulation. This isn’t helped by the [...]
> I must not fear. Fear is the mindkiller. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will allow it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there [...]
It’s been a little while since I’ve written about Kant’s *Groundwork* here, but it’s high time to get back to it since we’re barely through the first 2/3 of the first section of the book. Say what you will about Kant, but don’t blame him for not rewarding deep reading. My subject here is Kant’s [...]
My apologies for the short hiatus. It was Homecoming weekend here at UMR (come to think of it, the last one at UMR) and there were many and various events and dinners to attend. But now back to our (non-computer related) regular programming. This post is about what Kant calls his “second proposition” in the [...]
One of my favorite Kantian commentators (and moral philosophers in general) is Christine Korsgaard, and I’ve been turning to her work on Kant (as well as others) as I thoroughly read through the Groundwork. The article I’m quoting from below is her “Kant’s Analysis of Obligation: The Argument of Groundwork I”, from Paul Guyer’s anthology.
A [...]
As I’ve pointed out before in this series, Kant does not believe that human beings’ purpose is to be happy. The presence of reason suggests we are here for much more. Furthermore, and I think Kant is right about this, giving ourselves the goal of being happy in even a moderately complicated life (where happiness [...]
In the first section of the *Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals*, Kant develops the idea that we can call his first proposition:
> In order for an action to have moral worth, it must be done from the motive of duty.
This must be one of the single most misunderstood parts of Kantian ethics, so I [...]
So this is the first post in a series on Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. I’m stealing Chris’s abbrevation for it: GMOM. Phonetically, it’s not a bad way to think about Kant’s Ethics (”Gee Mom, should I tell the truth even to an axe murderer looking for my friend?”). As a bit of [...]
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