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    There is a gap between Kant's analytic claim about means-... — Carmelics
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    Home/Virtue Ethics
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    There is a gap between Kant's analytic claim about means-ends rationality and the synthetic conclusion that rational agency requires conforming to the Categorical Imperative

    Truth & KnowledgeVirtue Ethics
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Kant's own Groundwork derivation moves from 'will' to 'pure will' via a separable metaphysical step that introduces autonomy as a distinct normative source.
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    • 2.Christine Korsgaard concedes in 'Self-Constitution' that the reflective endorsement move requires a substantive commitment to one's rational nature that is not contained in mere means-ends reasoning.
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    • 3.A derivation requiring substantive commitments beyond its starting concept introduces content that is synthetic, not merely explicative of what was already implicit.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Hypothetical imperatives bind only agents with relevant desires, while the CI claims unconditional authority over all rational beings regardless of their contingent motivational states.
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    • 2.Henry Allison's 'incorporation thesis' shows that even Kant's own account of rational action requires a separate act of will-adoption that is not analytically entailed by having a purpose.
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    • 3.Unconditional authority cannot be derived from conditional, desire-indexed rationality without an ampliative inferential step that generates genuinely new normative content.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.The means-ends principle is analytic of rational agency
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    • 2.Conforming to a non-desire based principle like the CI is a further, synthetic requirement
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    • 3.Analytic claims cannot by themselves establish synthetic conclusions
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    Topics

    Virtue EthicsTruth & Knowledge

    Connections

    2 topics

    Skepticism1 linkedMoral Responsibility1 linked

    Related

    A derivation requiring substantive commitments beyond its starting concept intro...Analytic claims cannot by themselves establish synthetic conclusionsChristine Korsgaard concedes in 'Self-Constitution' that the reflective endorsem...Conforming to a non-desire based principle like the CI is a further, synthetic r...
    +5 moreShow less
    Henry Allison's 'incorporation thesis' shows that even Kant's own account of rat...Hypothetical imperatives bind only agents with relevant desires, while the CI cl...Kant's own Groundwork derivation moves from 'will' to 'pure will' via a separabl...

    Similar

    It is built into our conception of rationality that our own particular...79%The means-ends principle is analytic of rational agency78%Taking the means to one's ends is analytic of rational agency78%The Categorical Imperative presumes that rational agents can conform t...78%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: kant-moral
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    The apparent failure of Kant’s argument to establish the autonomy of the will, and hence the authority of moral demands over us, has not deterred his followers from trying to make good on this project. One strategy favored recently has been to turn back to the arguments of Groundwork II for help. Kant himself repeatedly claimed that these arguments are merely analytic but that they do not establish that there is anything that answers to the concepts he analyzes. The conclusions are thus fully co
    Extraction notes

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    Details

    The means-ends principle is analytic of rational agency
    Unconditional authority cannot be derived from conditional, desire-indexed ratio...
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit