Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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Otfried Höffe on Categorical Imperative - Dictionary of Arguments
Höffe I 304 Categorical Imperative/Autonomy/Courtesy: [Autonomy] is in Kant’s terms (...) - as is often the case today – not any kind of self-determination, but rather a self-legislation, the concept of the law (...) which must not be suppressed here. For political thought, it has a mystical precedence over its "usual" concepts such as justice and rule. In the law of a basic rule that applies without exception to personal and political practice, reason and freedom find their characteristic form according to Kant. >Legislation/Kant, >Principles/Kant. I 305 In its semantic meaning the categorical imperative(1) is nothing else than the concept of morality, related to sensual beings of reason. For, in contrast to pure beings of reason, a deity or angels, morality consists with them not in a being, the (moral) law, but in a non-arbitrary, rather rational ought, an imperative. This, because of its origin in reason, has an unconditional and therefore categorical character. Mankind's purpose: The much-cited formula of mankind's purpose for demands - for rational nature exists as an "end in itself": "Act in such a way that you need mankind [in the sense of the rational nature of humans] both in your person and in the person of every other person at any time simultaneously as end, never merely as means"(2). To treat someone as a means to an end, the so-called instrumentalization, is thus not forbidden, but only its exclusivity is rejected. Instrumentalization is permitted as far as it recognizes the end character of every human being. Realm of purposes: (...) "all maxims [should] by their own legislation be tuned together to a possible realm of ends, as a realm of nature"(3). 1. I. Kant, Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, 1785 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid._____________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. |
Höffe I Otfried Höffe Geschichte des politischen Denkens München 2016 |
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Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-28