Journal of Moral Philosophy 8 (1):45-67 (2011)
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Abstract |
Common sense tells us that in certain circumstances, helping someone is morally obligatory. That intuition appears incompatible with Kant's account of beneficence as a wide imperfect duty, and its implication that agents may exercise latitude over which beneficent actions to perform. In this paper, I offer a resolution to the problem from which it follows that some opportunities to help admit latitude and others do not. I argue that beneficence has two components: the familiar wide duty to help others achieve their ends and a narrow duty to avoid indifference to others as end-setters. Although we are not always required to help, we are always required not to be indifferent. When helping someone is the only way not to be indifferent to a person, helping him/her is obligatory. My account avoids certain difficulties with other proposed solutions and can also address an important concern about proximity.
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Keywords | IMPERFECT DUTY KANT OBLIGATION THOMAS HILL BENEFICENCE LATITUDE BARBARA HERMAN |
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DOI | 10.1163/174552411X549372 |
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Kant and the Demandingness of the Virtue of Beneficence.Paul Formosa & Martin Sticker - 2019 - European Journal of Philosophy 27 (3):625-642.
Moral Rationalism and Demandingness in Kant.Marcel van Ackeren & Martin Sticker - 2018 - Kantian Review 23 (3):407-428.
On Trying Too Hard: A Kantian Interpretation of Misguided Moral Striving.Mavis Biss - 2021 - Journal of Philosophy of Education 55 (6):966-976.
Imperfect Duties and Corporate Philanthropy: A Kantian Approach.David E. Ohreen & Roger A. Petry - 2012 - Journal of Business Ethics 106 (3):367-381.
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