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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The categorical imperative must be discovered a priori through reason, not through experience.

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    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Moral concepts like 'rational being' and 'autonomy' are themselves shaped by historically contingent social practices, as Hegel argues in the Phenomenology.
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    • 2.A principle whose very content is culturally mediated cannot claim the pure a priori status Kant attributes to the categorical imperative.
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    • 3.Kant's own formulations vary across the Groundwork, suggesting content-determination requires something beyond bare formal reason.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Rawls and Korsgaard demonstrate that the categorical imperative requires 'reflective equilibrium' between intuitions and principles, grounding it partly in experience.
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    • 2.If moral principles must cohere with considered judgments about particular cases, then experiential data partially constitutes, not merely applies, the moral law.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.The categorical imperative is a fundamental moral law that applies to all rational beings universally.
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    • 2.What applies universally to all rational beings cannot be discovered through mere empirical experience, which is particular and contingent.
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    • 3.One cannot learn how one ought to act from observing how people actually do act.
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