Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:01:09.457Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Kant on Moral Illusion and Appraisal of Others

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2017

David Hakim
David Hakim*
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Kant’s accounts of moral education, appraisal respect and gratitude each depend on the assumption that human beings see and judge each other’s actions to be morally good. This assumption appears to stand in tension with the Opacity Thesis, Kant’s claim that we can never know if an action is morally good. This paper examines Kant’s discussion of moral illusion to relieve this tension. It is argued that we are required to uphold moral illusion, i.e. to represent others’ actions to be morally good (while knowing that we may be mistaken), due to the duty of beneficence for others’ moral well-being.

Keywords

Kantopacitymoral appraisalmoral illusionduty of beneficence
Type
Articles
Information
Kantian Review , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , September 2017 , pp. 421 - 440
Copyright
© Kantian Review 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baron, Marcia W. (2002) ‘Love and Respect in the Doctrine of Virtue ’. In Mark Timmons (ed.) Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals Interpretative Essays. (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 391–407.Google Scholar
Darwall, Stephen (2008) ‘Kant on Respect, Dignity, and the Duty of Respect’. In Monika Betzler (ed.) Kant’s Ethics of Virtue. (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter), pp. 175–199.Google Scholar
Frierson, Patrick (2005) ‘The Moral Importance of Politeness in Kant’s Anthropology’. Kantian Review, 9, 105–127.Google Scholar
Guyer, Paul (2012) ‘Examples of Moral Possibility’. In Klas Roth and Chris W. Surprenant (eds) Kant and Education: Interpretations and Commentary. (New York: Routledge), pp. 124–138.Google Scholar
Herman, Barbara (1993) The Practice of Moral Judgment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Klimchuk, Dennis (2004) ‘Three Accounts of Respect for Persons in Kant’s Ethics’. Kantian Review, 8, 38–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moran, Kate (2016) ‘Much Obliged: Kantian Gratitude Reconsidered’. Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, 98, 330–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Neill, Onora (1975) Acting on Principle. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Smit, Houston, and Timmons, Mark (2011) ‘The Moral Significance of Gratitude in Kant’s Ethics’. Southern Journal of Philosophy, 49, 295–320.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam (1982) The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Ed. D. D. Raphael and A. L. Macfie. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar
Ware, Owen (2009) ‘The Duty of Self-Knowledge’. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 79, 671–698.Google Scholar