Contradiction and Kant’s Formula of Universal Law
Kant Studien 108 (1):89-115 (2017)
Abstract
Kant’s most prominent formulation of the Categorical Imperative, known as the Formula of Universal Law (FUL), is generally thought to demand that one act only on maxims that one can will as universal laws without this generating a contradiction. Kant's view is standardly summarized as requiring the 'universalizability' of one's maxims and described in terms of the distinction between 'contradictions in conception' and 'contradictions in the will'. Focusing on the underappreciated significance of the simultaneity condition included in the FUL, I argue, by contrast, that the principle is better read as requiring that one be able to will two things simultaneously without self-contradiction, namely, that a maxim be one's own and that it be a universal law. This amounts to a new interpretation of the FUL with significant interpretive and philosophical advantages.Author's Profile
DOI
10.1515/kant-2017-0006
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A Contradiction of the Right Kind: Convenience Killing and Kant’s Formula of Universal Law.Pauline Kleingeld - 2019 - Philosophical Quarterly 69 (274):64-81.
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References found in this work
Self-Constitution: Agency, Identity, and Integrity.Christine Korsgaard - 2009 - Oxford University Press.
Constructions of Reason: Explorations of Kant's Practical Philosophy.Onora O'Neill - 1989 - Cambridge University Press.