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Critics of Kantian ethics sometimes complain that the concept of a categorical imperative makes no sense because there could be no reason for obeying such an imperative. This is usually because they think that the only reason for obeying an imperative must be an end in the sense of an end to be produced. They do not notice that Kant's concept of an objective end in itself is precisely his answer to their question.
Allen W. Wood
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It is far from self-evident why Kant chooses this triad as his vehicle for systematizing the formulas of the moral principle.
Allen W. Wood
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I suggest that a Kantian should think of any formulation of the supreme principle of morality (including all of Kant's own formulations) as provisional expressions of a principle to the conception of which we limited and fallible rational beings must always aspire.
Allen W. Wood
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Thus Kantian autonomy, once it is understood, will (and ought to) disappoint those shallow minds and immature souls who are attracted to the doctrine of autonomy for the wrong reasons. They were hoping for some radical individualist revolution in morality, in which paroxysms of human self-will overthrow the divine will's numinous majesty (thereby replacing, as many such revolutions sadly do, one arbitrary and unjust tyranny with another and bringing to power merely a different mob of unprincipled scoundrels). The sober rationalism of Kantian ethics is equally incompatible with voluntarism in its theological and its Promethean forms.
Allen W. Wood
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The greater the artist, the greater the doubt; perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.
Robert Hughes
Allen W. Wood
Born:
1942
(age 82)
Bio:
Allen William Wood is an American philosopher specialising in the work of Immanuel Kant and the German Idealists, with particular interests in ethics and social philosophy.
Known for:
Kant's ethical thought (1999)
Hegel's ethical thought (1990)
Kant's moral religion (1968)
Kant's rational theology (1978)
Unsettling Obligations (2002)
Most used words:
moral
kantian
ethics
rational
morality
theory
kant
sense
nature
ethical
principles
reason
human
action
imperative
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