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    If agents can reliably identify the categorical imperativ... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Humans virtually inevitably misconstrue their own interests and pursue them in misguided ways.

    If agents can reliably identify the categorical imperative and bind their will to it, then misconstrual of genuine interests is not virtually inevitable but contingently corrigible.

    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Kant's categorical imperative provides a rational procedure independent of empirical desires, enabling agents to distinguish genuine from misconstrued interests.
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    • 2.Moral education and rational reflection can improve agents' ability to identify the categorical imperative, making errors corrigible rather than inevitable.
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    • 3.If misconstrual were virtually inevitable, moral responsibility and duty would be conceptually incoherent, yet these remain meaningful features of moral life.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Cognitive biases and self-interest systematically distort how agents perceive the categorical imperative, making reliable identification practically impossible.
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    • 2.The categorical imperative's formal abstraction creates persistent ambiguity in application, preventing consensus on what it actually demands in concrete cases.
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    • 3.Even with good faith efforts, agents lack sufficient epistemic access to their own motivations to definitively distinguish genuine from misconstrued interests.
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    Key Terms

    Bind their will(as used in ethics)
    To commit yourself or make yourself follow a particular rule or principle, even when it's difficult.
    Contingently corrigible(as used in metaphysics)
    Able to be corrected or fixed, but only depending on certain conditions or circumstances—not absolutely guaranteed to be fixable.
    Genuine interests(as used in ethics)
    What someone actually needs or cares about, as opposed to what they mistakenly think they need.
    Misconstrual(as used in epistemology)
    A misunderstanding or incorrect interpretation of something.
    Virtually inevitable(as used in modal language)
    Almost certain to happen; practically impossible to avoid.
    agents(referring to people in this philosophical discussion)
    People, or more broadly, any thinking being capable of having beliefs and making decisions.
    categorical imperative(Groundwork, 4.421, 429)
    The moral law requiring that one will the maxim of an action as a universal law (removing any self-preference) and treat humanity in any person always as an end and never merely as a means

    Connections

    2 topics

    Eternal Conscious Torment1 linkedAfterlife & Death1 linked

    Related

    Cognitive biases and self-interest systematically distort how agents perceive th...Even with good faith efforts, agents lack sufficient epistemic access to their o...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit
    Humans virtually inevitably misconstrue their own interests and pursue them in m...
    If misconstrual were virtually inevitable, moral responsibility and duty would b...
    +3 moreShow less
    Kant's categorical imperative provides a rational procedure independent of empir...Moral education and rational reflection can improve agents' ability to identify ...The categorical imperative's formal abstraction creates persistent ambiguity in ...