Smart Consequentialism: Kantian Moral Theory and the (Qualified) Defense of Capitalism

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Epstein
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theory ◽  
Kantian Moral Theory

The Green’s Gambit

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Hale
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Endangered Species ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Categorical Imperative ◽  
Endangered Species Act ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Kantian Moral Theory

This chapter argues that reasons are underdetermined and often left out of value-based discussions of nature. The chapter offers a rough sketch of Kantian moral theory – particularly the first two formulations of the Categorical Imperative – to suggest that the primary charge of environmentalism ought to be that of encouraging deeper justification of actions. It utilizes the Endangered Species Act, the argument from ecosystem services, and the case of a stolen kidney to suggest that cost-benefit analysis and related methodologies are insufficient for addressing the broad ethical considerations of environmentalists.

Schiller's Critique of Kant's Moral Psychology: Reconciling Practical Reason and an Ethics of Virtue

1997 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Gauthier
Keyword(s):  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Practical Reason ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Moral Motivation ◽  
Friedrich Schiller ◽  
Virtuous Person ◽  
Kantian Morality ◽  
Kantian Moral Theory

Mention of the name of Friedrich Schiller among both critics and defenders of Kant's moral philosophy has most often been with reference to the well known quip:“Gladly I serve my friends, but alas I do it with pleasure.Hence I am plagued with doubt that I am not a virtuous person.““Sure, your only resource is to try to despise them entirely,And then with aversion to do what your duty enjoins you.''This attention, however, has served to obscure the fact that Schiller truly intended his remark as a joke, representing a serious, if understandable, misinterpretation of Kantian morality. Though Schiller's various attempts to articulate a theory of moral motivation include important divergences from Kant's account, they represent a response to a set of problems that arise in the context of Kantian moral theory. As such, they may be of greatest interest to moralists who are working within the Kantian tradition. In this paper, I clarify certain points of Schiller's critique of Kant's account of moral motivation and place them in the context of his broader project of reconciling Kantianism and an ethics of virtue.

Kant and Animals

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Moral Status ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Animal Minds ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Moral Status Of Animals ◽  
The Right ◽  
Kantian Moral Theory

This is an edited collection devoted to the topic of the role of animals within Kant’s philosophy. It addresses key issues within both his theoretical and practical philosophy. It examines the place of Kant’s model of animal minds in the historical and contemporary contexts. It addresses the question of whether Kant’s philosophy of mind allows for animals to be capable of intentional representations of spatiotemporal objects. It explores how Kant treated the issue of animal nature as it manifests in humans and non-humans alike, and questions how Kant’s scientific theory attempted to accommodate animals within his broader Enlightenment worldview. It also addresses traditional worries about the moral status of animals within Kant’s and Kantian moral theory. Kant notoriously denied that we have direct obligations to animals, and the question persists as to whether Kantian moral theory provides the right account of the moral status of non-human animals. Several papers in this collection address the question and whether Kant’s views can be defended or ought to be rejected altogether on this basis alone. The collection considers the relevance of Kantian theory for our understanding of contemporary challenges facing human beings with regard to our relationship to animals.

Review: Kantian Moral Theory and the Destruction of the Self

Mind ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 111 (442) ◽  
pp. 403-406
Author(s):  
R. Norman
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Kantian Moral Theory

‘Letting the Phenomena In’: On How Herman's Kantianism Does and Does Not Answer the Empty Formalism Critique

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-47
Author(s):  
Sally Sedgwick
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theory ◽  
Practical Philosophy ◽  
The Common ◽  
Kantian Moral Theory

AbstractIn Moral Literacy, Barbara Herman informs us that she will defend an ‘enlarged version of Kantian moral theory’ (Herman 2008: ix). Her ‘enlarged version’, she says, will provide a much-needed alternative to the common but misguided characterization of Kant's practical philosophy as an empty formalism. I begin with a brief sketch of the main features of Herman's corrective account. I endorse her claim that the enlarged Kantianism she defends is true to Kant's intentions as well as successful in correcting the objections she outlines. I then argue that there is another version of the empty formalism worry Herman does not address. Not only does she not address it, but her form of Kantianism provides fuel for its fire.

Integration and authority: rescuing the ‘one thought too many’ problem

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 812-830
Author(s):  
Nicholas Smyth
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theory ◽  
Bernard Williams ◽  
General Consensus ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
Moral Theories ◽  
Integration Problem ◽  
The One ◽  
Kantian Moral Theory

AbstractFour decades ago, Bernard Williams accused Kantian moral theory of providing agents with ‘one thought too many’. The general consensus among contemporary Kantians is that this objection has been decisively answered. In this paper, I reconstruct the problem, showing that Williams was not principally concerned with how agents are to think in emergency situations, but rather with how moral theories are to be integrated into recognizably human lives. I show that various Kantian responses to Williams provide inadequate materials for solving this ‘integration problem’, and that they are correspondingly ill-positioned to account for the authority of morality, as Williams suspected all along.

scholarly journals The Importance of Personal Relationships in Kantian Moral Theory: A Reply to Care Ethics

Hypatia ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilea Bramer
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theory ◽  
Categorical Imperative ◽  
Care Ethics ◽  
Moral Worth ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
Special Treatment ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Moral Value ◽  
Moral Theories ◽  
Kantian Moral Theory

Care ethicists have long insisted that Kantian moral theory fails to capture the partiality that ought to be present in our personal relationships. In her most recent book, Virginia Held claims that, unlike impartial moral theories, care ethics guides us in how we should act toward friends and family. Because these actions are performed out of care, they have moral value for a care ethicist. The same actions, Held claims, would not have moral worth for a Kantian because of the requirement of impartiality. Although Kantian moral theory is an impartial theory, I argue that the categorical imperative in the Formulation of Humanity as an End and the duty of respect require that we give special treatment to friends and family because of their relationships with us. Therefore, this treatment does have moral value for a Kantian.

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