Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Categorical Imperative: Kant's theorem from § 7 (Basic Law of Pure Practical Reason) in the Critique of Practical Reason. "Act in such a way that the maxim of your will at any given time could at the same time be regarded as a principle of general legislation." (German, "Handle so, dass die Maxime deines Willens jederzeit zugleich als Prinzip einer allgemeinen Gesetzgebung gelten könne.") The categorical imperative occurs in Kant’s work in several different formulations. See also ethics, morals, principles, laws, actions, cognitivism._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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John Rawls on Categorical Imperative - Dictionary of Arguments
I 251 Categorical Imperative/moral/Kant/Rawls: Kant begins by rationally choosing and rationally judging moral principles. I 254 Kant/SidgwickVsKant/Sidgwick/Rawls: Sidgwick writes that nothing in Kant's ethics is more striking than the idea that the human expresses his true self by acting according to the moral law. On the other hand, if he/she yields to certain needs, he/she acts according to the law of nature(1). >H. Sidgwick, >I. Kant, >Morals, >Ethics. I 255 Kant now fails to explain according to Sidgwick why the villain in his bad life does not express his selfhood as the saint does in his life. KantVsSidgwick/KantVsVs/Rawls: Kant should reply that any consistent action according to principles could be the result of a decision of the noumenal self, but that not every action of the phenomenal self reveals this as a free and equal rational being. RawlsVsKant: Kant has not shown that our action out of the moral law shows our nature in a recognizable way, as acting on contrary principles would not. Solution/Rawls: our assumption of the initial situation with the veil of non-knowledge corrects this deficiency: we only have to show that our chosen principles are applicable. We accept the initial situation as one considered by the noumenal self in Kant's sense. Qua noumenale they have the free choice between principles. At the same time they want to express their rationality in the lifeworld, i.e. their independence from contingent features of nature and society. If the argument from the contract theory is correct, only those principles define the moral law. >Contract theory/Rawls, >Principles/Rawls, >Lifeworld. I 256 Our desire to be righteous arises, in part, from the desire to express ourselves as free and equally rational beings. I think that is why Kant speaks of it as a cause of shame when we misbehave and not as a cause of guilt. >Emotion/Rawls. 1. Sidgwick, "The Kantian Conception of Free Will," Mind, vol.13, 1888, pp. 511-516._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Rawl I J. Rawls A Theory of Justice: Original Edition Oxford 2005 |
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Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-27