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    Sulzer grounds moral motivation in natural sympathy, but ... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Sulzer's moral theory is not egocentric.

    Sulzer grounds moral motivation in natural sympathy, but Kant argues sympathy-based morality remains heteronomous and thus self-regarding in its dependence on contingent feeling.

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    1 reason for
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    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.Sympathy depends on variable emotional states; moral duties based on feelings lack the universality required for genuine obligation.
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    • 2.Actions motivated by sympathy aim at relieving one's own empathetic distress, making them ultimately self-interested rather than truly moral.
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    • 3.Only autonomy—acting from rational principle independent of inclination—can ground genuine moral agency and respect for persons as ends.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Sympathy reliably motivates us toward others' welfare; Kant's demand for non-contingent motivation ignores that all motivation causally depends on mental states.
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    • 2.The distinction between 'self-regarding' and 'other-regarding' motivation is unstable; benefiting others through sympathy isn't obviously more self-serving than duty.
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    • 3.Kant's autonomy requirement may be too stringent: if no empirical motivation suffices, how can reason alone move us to act in the world at all?
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    Virtue Ethics1 linkedAesthetics1 linked

    Related

    Actions motivated by sympathy aim at relieving one's own empathetic distress, ma...Kant's autonomy requirement may be too stringent: if no empirical motivation suf...Only autonomy—acting from rational principle independent of inclination—can grou...Sulzer's moral theory is not egocentric.
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    Sympathy depends on variable emotional states; moral duties based on feelings la...Sympathy reliably motivates us toward others' welfare; Kant's demand for non-con...The distinction between 'self-regarding' and 'other-regarding' motivation is uns...

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