Kant on Moral Sensibility and Moral Motivation

Journal of the History of Philosophy 52 (4):727-746 (2014)
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Abstract

Despite Kant’s lasting influence on philosophical accounts of moral motivation, many details of his own position remain elusive. In the Critique of Practical Reason, for example, Kant argues that our recognition of the moral law’s authority must elicit both painful and pleasurable feelings in us. On reflection, however, it is unclear how these effects could motivate us to act from duty. As a result, Kant’s theory of moral sensibility comes under a skeptical threat: the possibility of a morally motivating feeling seems incoherent. My aim in this paper is to reconstruct Kant’s theory in a way that overcomes this threat. By way of conclusion, I show how my reconstruction brings a new perspective to a long-standing dispute over intellectualist and affectivist views of moral motivation.

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Owen Ware
University of Toronto, Mississauga

Citations of this work

Achtung in Kant and Smith.Michael Walschots - 2022 - Kant Studien 113 (2):238-268.
Why Does Kant Think We Must Believe in the Immortal Soul?Jessica Tizzard - 2020 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 50 (1):114-129.
Kant on Moral Respect.Anastasia Berg - 2021 - Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 103 (4):730-760.
Kant on moral self‐opacity.Anastasia N. A. Berg - 2020 - European Journal of Philosophy 28 (3):567-585.

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References found in this work

A Treatise of Human Nature.David Hume & A. D. Lindsay - 1958 - Philosophical Quarterly 8 (33):379-380.
Two kinds of respect.Stephen L. Darwall - 1977 - Ethics 88 (1):36-49.
Skepticism about practical reason.Christine M. Korsgaard - 1986 - Journal of Philosophy 83 (1):5-25.
Phänomenologie des Geistes.G. W. F. Hegel & J. Hoffmeister - 1807 - Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 15 (3):528-528.
A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason.L. W. BECK - 1960 - Les Etudes Philosophiques 19 (3):438-439.

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