ۺۣۣۜۤۧ۠ۜێ
ٲٱێۛҖۦۣۘۛۙғۦۖۡٷۗ۠ۧғٷۢۦ۩ۣ۞ҖҖۃۤۨۨۜ
ẳẴặẺẾẺẻẳỄڷۦۣۚڷ۪ۧۙۗۦۙۧڷ۠ٷۣۢۨۘۘۆ
ۙۦۙۜڷ۟ۗ۠Өڷۃۧۨۦۙ۠ٷڷ۠ٷۡٮ
ۙۦۙۜڷ۟ۗ۠Өڷۃۣۧۢۨۤۦۗۧۖ۩ۑ
ۙۦۙۜڷ۟ۗ۠Өڷۃۧۨۢۦۤۙۦڷ۠ٷۗۦۣۙۡۡӨ
ۙۦۙۜڷ۟ۗ۠Өڷۃڷۙۧ۩ڷۣۚڷۧۡۦۙے
ۣۚڷۙۘۑڷ۠ٷۣۣۢۨۡٮڷۙۜۨڷۃ۫ٷۋڷ۠ٷۦۣیڷۙۜۨڷۦۣۚڷۨۗۙۤۧۙې
ۣۢۧٷۙې
ۨۨەۙөڷۙ۠۠ۙۢٷЂ
ھڿڷҒڷڽڷۤۤڷۃڿڽڼھڷۦۣۙۖۨۗۍڷҖڷۙ۠ۗۨۦۆڷόẴẽẾếạẴẰỂڷҖڷۺۣۣۜۤۧ۠ۜێ
ڿڽڼھڷۦۣۙۖۨۗۍڷۀڽڷۃۣۙۢ۠ۢڷۘۙۜۧ۠ۖ۩ێڷۃہۀڿڼڼڼڿڽڽۂڽہڽڿڼڼۑҖۀڽڼڽғڼڽڷۃٲۍө
ہۀڿڼڼڼڿڽڽۂڽہڽڿڼڼۑٵۨۗٷۦۨۧۖٷۛҖۦۣۘۛۙғۦۖۡٷۗ۠ۧғٷۢۦ۩ۣ۞ҖҖۃۤۨۨۜڷۃۙ۠ۗۨۦٷڷۧۜۨڷۣۨڷ۟ۢۋ
ۃۙ۠ۗۨۦٷڷۧۜۨڷۙۨۗڷۣۨڷۣ۫ٱ
ۣۧۢғٷۙېڷۣۚڷۙۘۑڷ۠ٷۣۣۢۨۡٮڷۙۜۨڷۃ۫ٷۋڷ۠ٷۦۣیڷۙۜۨڷۦۣۚڷۨۗۙۤۧۙېڷۨۨەۙөڷۙ۠۠ۙۢٷЂ
ہۀڿڼڼڼڿڽڽۂڽہڽڿڼڼۑҖۀڽڼڽғڼڽۃۣۘڷڿڽڼھڷۍӨЂڷۣۢڷۙ۠ۖٷ۠ٷ۪ۆڷۃۺۣۣۜۤۧ۠ۜێ
ۙۦۙۜڷ۟ۗ۠Өڷۃڷۣۧۢۧۧۡۦۙێڷۨۧۙ۩ۥۙې
ڿڽڼھڷۨۗۍڷڽڿڷۣۢڷۂڽڽҢғڽڽғۀғҢۀۀڽڷۃۧۧۙۦۘۘٷڷێٲڷۃٲٱێۛҖۦۣۘۛۙғۦۖۡٷۗ۠ۧғٷۢۦ۩ۣ۞ҖҖۃۤۨۨۜڷۣۡۦۚڷۘۙۘٷۣۣ۠ۢ۫ө
Respect for the Moral Law: the
Emotional Side of Reason
JANELLE D E WITT
Abstract
Respect, as Kant describes it, has a duality of nature that seems to embody a contradiction – i.e., it is both a moral motive and a feeling, where these are thought to be
mutually exclusive. Most solutions involve eliminating one of the two natures, but
unfortunately, this also destroys what is unique about respect. So instead, I question
the non-cognitive theory of emotion giving rise to the contradiction. In its place, I
develop the cognitive theory implicit in Kant’s work, one in which emotions take
the form of evaluative judgments that determine the will. I then show that, as a
purely rational emotion, respect is perfectly suited to be a moral motive.
There is little doubt that Kant saw respect as a central piece of his
moral theory. It might even be considered the linchpin, because by
means of it and it alone reason becomes practical. But as Kant describes it, respect has a duality of nature that seems to embody a contradiction; namely, respect is both a moral motive and a feeling.1 And
1
References to respect as a moral motive and as a feeling are scattered
throughout Kant’s major moral works. Consider as examples: ‘Respect for
the moral law is therefore the sole and also the undoubted moral incentive’
(C2 5:78), and ‘It could be objected that I only seek refuge, behind the
word respect, in an obscure feeling, instead of distinctly resolving the question
by means of a concept of reason. But though respect is a feeling, it is not one
received by means of influence; it is, instead, a feeling self-wrought by means of
a rational concept and therefore specifically different from all feelings of the
first kind, which can be reduced to inclination or fear’ (G 4:401n).
I have used two sets of translations from Cambridge University Press. The
first is from the Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy: Anthropology
from a Pragmatic Point of View (A), ed. and trans. Robert B. Louden (2006);
Critique of Practical Reason (C2), ed. and trans. Mary Gregor (1997);
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (G), ed. and trans. Mary Gregor
(1997); Metaphysics of Morals (MM), ed. and trans. Mary Gregor (1996);
and Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (R), ed. and trans. Allen
Wood and George di Giovanni (1998). The second is from the Cambridge
Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (C1), ed.
and trans. Paul Guyer and Allen Wood (1998); Critique of the Power of
Judgment (C3), ed. and trans. Paul Guyer and trans. Eric Matthews (2000);
doi:10.1017/S0031819113000648
Philosophy; Page 1 of 32 2013
© The Royal Institute of Philosophy, 2013
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Janelle DeWitt
given the basic metaphysical and anthropological framework of his
moral theory, where there exists a deep division between the
moral/rational and natural orders, it seems that these two aspects of
respect land on opposite sides of the metaphysical divide. As a
moral motive, respect must be purely in the rational order, unadulterated by sensibility. But in order to be a feeling, that is, to be felt,
sensibility must be involved. So respect, as a feeling, cannot be a
moral motive.
Given how deeply incompatible these two characteristics appear to
be, it is not surprising that Kant’s account of respect has been considered an extremely problematic element of his theory. In response,
most sympathetic commentators have suggested that Kant never
really intended for respect to be understood as both a moral motive
and a feeling. Thus, most attempts at resolving this issue have
focused on eliminating this duality. Rather than see respect as a
single mental state with dual qualities, they instead bifurcate it into
distinct, albeit closely connected, states involved in the determination
of the will, only one of which is properly called respect. On the one
side, we have the consciousness of the moral law and/or the recognition of its authority (a purely rational, cognitive state). On the
other, we have the effect of this cognitive state on our sensibility in
the form of a painful thwarting of inclination (a natural/empirical, affective state). The two dominant views diverge in regards to which of
the two states they identify as respect. Andrews Reath is one who
argues that respect is consciousness of the moral law, and so the
moral motive, whereas Paul Guyer identifies respect with the pathological aftermath, and so views it as a feeling.2
Though these are both interesting accounts, I think they are
ultimately unsuccessful because the basic strategy they both pursue
Lectures on Logic (LL), ed. and trans. J. Michael Young (1992); Lectures on
Metaphysics (LM), ed. and trans. Karl Ameriks and Steve Naragon (1997);
Lectures on the Philosophical Doctrine of Religion (LPDR) in Religion and
Rational Theology, ed. and trans. Allen Wood and George di Giovanni
(1996); and Notes and Fragments (NF), ed. and trans. Paul Guyer and trans.
Curtis Bowman and Frederick Rauscher (2005).
2
I believe Reath and Guyer represent clear examples of these two views,
but they are not alone. Most accounts of respect fall into one or the other. For
more on these specific accounts, see Andrews Reath, ‘Kant’s Theory of
Moral Sensibility: Respect for the Moral Law and the Influence of
Inclination’, Kant-Studien 80 (1989): 284–302, and Paul Guyer, Kant on
Freedom, Law, and Happiness (New York: Cambridge University Press,
2000).
2
Respect for the Moral Law
for resolving the problem fails to capture what is unique about
respect, and therefore fails to understand how respect motivates.
Specifically, I believe that Kant thinks respect can function as the
moral motive because it is a feeling, not despite it. So rather than eliminate the unique dual character of respect, I suggest we preserve it,
and instead explore Kant’s view of emotion giving rise to it. For
Kant to make such a bold claim about respect, he certainly must
have had a fairly substantial theory operating in the background
(whether or not it ever manifested itself explicitly in his main
works). And I believe he did – it will just take some philosophical
excavation to uncover it and piece it together. Moreover, I believe
his various discussions of respect are places where he was working
out one of the more difficult elements of his theory – specifically,
where he was attempting to merge the motivational aspect of
emotion with the objectivity of pure reason.
In the past decade, several have argued (directly or indirectly) that
Kant could accommodate a more cognitive, Aristotelian-like account
of emotion in place of the non-cognitive or mechanistic theory that he
adopted (a theory in which emotions are thought to be pleasure and
pain-like sensations that blindly impel a subject to action). Having
Kant abandon the non-cognitive view is seen as a step forward
because it would allow reason at least some ability to shape or influence non-moral motivation. But even if an Aristotelian-like account
could be imported, it would still not solve the problem at hand. In
order to account for respect, emotion will have to take on a purely cognitive/rational form, a form absent any involvement from sensibility.
How does Kant achieve this end? By characterizing emotion primarily in terms of its function, i.e., in terms of its characteristic role in the
activity of the mind. More specifically, emotions are action-initiating
evaluative judgments, a position revealing a deep Stoic influence. The
forms, objects, principles and characteristics of these judgments will
vary across a wide spectrum, from the purely non-rational/non-cognitive analogues of judgment on the instinctual end,3 to the purely
3
This type of judgment accounts primarily for emotion in animals. As
non-rational creatures, they only have an analogue to reason and its judgments, and consequently only produce a ‘connection of representations according to the laws of sensibility, from which the same effects follow as
from a connection according to concepts’ (LM 28:276, see also LM
28:690). Most human emotion, in contrast, will involve reason to some
degree. (Even though our concept of emotion is slightly less expansive
than that of feeling for Kant, I will use the two terms interchangeably. I
chose to do this because ‘emotion’ conveys the same general sense in the
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Janelle DeWitt
rational/cognitive judgments on the moral end, and passing through
the usual evaluative judgments of ordinary emotional responses in
between. With this general framework in place, Kant can then
account for the emotions of any living, animate being, from nonrational animals all the way up to a purely rational, non-embodied
god. And since the key functional feature of emotions is that they
are action-initiating judgments, emotions emerge as the centerpiece
of Kant’s motivational account. Reason becomes practical by becoming emotional.4 It follows, then, that there is in fact no motivation in
Kant without emotion – moral or otherwise.
1. The Nature of Feeling in Kant
One hindrance to uncovering Kant’s theory of emotion is his potentially misleading terminology. Because of the strong associations that
some of his terms tend to elicit, his discussions of emotion are often
misinterpreted, if not missed altogether. For example, putting
emotion under the heading of ‘The Faculty of the Feeling of
Pleasure and Displeasure’ strongly suggests that emotions are a
type of pleasant or painful sensation, so strongly that on the basis
of this suggestion alone many commentators have ascribed a noncognitive view to him. This view, in turn, is thought to entail psychological hedonism with respect to non-moral action, where emotions
motivate because of the pleasant or painful aspect of these sensations.
A painful sensation is inherently aversive, and as such, it motivates
relevant passages but without the questionable emphasis on sensation, a
concern about ‘feeling’ (Gefühl) Kant shared as well (LPDR 28:1059).)
4
This claim reflects the Stoic thesis in which the rational and emotive
faculties are identified. I believe that this thesis, along with the structure of
purely rational emotions (eupatheiai) it makes possible, are the two central
points of Stoic influence on Kant’s own theory of emotion. Kant expresses
his enthusiastic approval of the Stoic account when he states that they ‘sowed
the seed for the most sublime sentiments (Gesinnungen) that ever existed’
(LL 9:30/542). However, though Kant adopts the Stoic constitutive
thesis that emotions are evaluative judgments (and not the sensations sometimes associated with them), he will reject the normative thesis that all ordinary emotions are false judgments and so should be suppressed. On the
various Stoic theses, see Margaret Graver’s Stoicism and Emotion
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007). Kant’s own theory also
echoes Augustine’s advancement of the Stoic line, in which he argues that
emotions are acts (judgments) of the will. See the De civitate Dei, XIV.6.
4
Respect for the Moral Law
behavior to remove oneself from the pain inducing circumstances
(while anticipation of pain motivates behavior to prevent such circumstances from coming about at all).
But when feelings of pleasure and their connection to motivation
are understood in this way, certain passages in Kant become
quite puzzling. Consider his discussion of sweet sorrow in the
Anthropology. He states
…we also judge enjoyment and pain by a higher satisfaction or
dissatisfaction within ourselves (namely moral): whether we
ought to refuse them or give ourselves over to them… The
object can be disagreeable:5 but the pain concerning it pleasing.
Therefore we have the expression sweet sorrow: for example, the
sweet sorrow of a widow who has been left well off but does
not want to allow herself to be comforted…6
In this example, Kant is describing the sensible pain of grief as pleasing, and since it is pleasing, it motivates the widow to linger in her
sorrow rather than be comforted by her good fortune. However,
the contrast between the pain of grief and the pleasure of grieving
Kant draws here is in tension with the hedonic account above. If
the sensation of pain is itself motivating, then her grief would move
her to be comforted. But the widow is not so moved. Instead, she
lingers in the pain of her grief. But why? Kant’s answer is that she
finds the thought of doing so pleasing, despite there being no pleasant
sensation involved. She does not linger because she feels a pleasant
sensation in the painful experience of grief itself, if this is even coherent. (When one speaks in this way, the pleasure is not a sensation, but
rather a form of assessment – i.e., the pain is something with which
one ‘is pleased’.) Nor does she linger in her grief because she anticipates the action producing a sensation of pleasure. For example, she
does not grieve in order to purge herself of the emotion, and thus alleviate the pain. And with the hedonic model, there are no other
options – only a current or anticipated sensation of pleasure would
motivate one to linger.
5
The German word here is unangenehm, which I believe is more properly translated (following Gregor) as disagreeable than (following Louden
here) as unpleasant. To be disagreeable is to be a specific kind of unpleasant.
6
A 7:237. In his discussion of sweet sorrow at C3 5:331, Kant further
describes this higher satisfaction as a satisfaction (i.e., pleasure) that ‘rests
on reason’ because it ‘pleases merely in the judging’ (as opposed to one
that gratifies, or pleases in a sensation).
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Janelle DeWitt
So what then are we to make of her finding grief pleasing? A
straightforward interpretation suggests that she lingers because she
sees there being something good or valuable to the painful experience
of grief. Grieving is often a way of recognizing the value of the loved
one who has died. And because she sees this action as being good or
valuable, it is pleasing to her. This is what Kant means when he says
that the higher pleasure (or satisfaction) judges the enjoyment or pain.
Put another way, the hedonic account suggests that the positive assessment of a sensation of pleasure is part of the sensation’s
essence. Pleasure by definition attracts, pain repels. Kant denies
this by distinguishing the assessment of the sensation (and its
context) as a distinct type of pleasure (or displeasure). It is in this
sense that we can have mixed states such as sweet sorrow and bitter
joy (the converse example), where a painful sensation can be pleasing
(positively assessed and so maintained), and a pleasant sensation displeasing (negatively assessed and so avoided).
This second type of pleasure – specifically, the assessment of the
sensation that causes the widow to linger – is, in essence, an action-initiating evaluative judgment, and as such, it explains her motivation
without direct appeal to a sensation. Without any felt quality,
however, it may seem odd for Kant to call the judgment itself a pleasure. But if we understand Kant’s use of feeling of pleasure to mean a
positive, practical emotion (an ordinary sense of Gefühl), rather than a
sensation, this is no longer the case. Furthermore since Kant characterizes pleasures primarily in terms of their function, certain pleasant
sensations and certain judgments both fall into the same category
because they have the same effect in motivation – they initiate
action, or more specifically, they promote the life or activity of the
subject.
That Kant describes pleasure in terms of its function in the activity
of the mind, rather than in terms of its affective character or visceral
feel, should be no surprise. He strongly believed that there could be
various forms of life, with radically different types of sensibility.
Animals, for example, have no inner sense. Angels, as spiritual
beings, have no outer sense. Saturnians and Mercurians are likely
to have versions of the inner and outer senses vastly different from
ours. God, unlike a finite creature, is a purely active being and so
has no senses at all.7 This variety of sensibility (or lack thereof)
poses a challenge, because the faculty of feeling is a faculty Kant believed to be shared by all minds, even God’s, because it plays an
7
6
LM 28:275–8, A 7:141fn24, LM 28:211and LPDR 28:1051.
Respect for the Moral Law
integral role in the activity of a mind as such.8 So he must be able to
characterize the faculty in a way that is independent of the particular
form of life a being might have, and he does this by describing pleasures in terms of their functional role in motivation. If, instead, Kant
had described pleasures in terms of a felt experiential quality, then
God would have the faculty of feeling without being able to feel,
among other problems.9
2. The Faculty of Feeling of Pleasure and Displeasure
The two most basic features of Kantian emotion have now emerged.
First, they are defined in terms of their function. That is, any representation capable of motivating action (i.e., determining the will)
is, by Kant’s definition, a feeling. Second, what enables these representations to motivate is the underlying structure they all share.
Feelings are judgments with a particular evaluative form.
Kant describes both of these features of feeling in an early passage
of the second Critique, where he states
…the determining ground of choice is then the representation of
an object and that relation of the representation to the subject by
which the faculty of desire is determined to realize the object.
Such a relation to the subject, however, is called pleasure in the
reality of an object.10
8
R 6:73, LPDR 28:1056 and LPDR 28:1059–61.
This is not to say that emotions could not have a connection to the
body, or depend in some way on a particular being’s sensible constitution.
To the contrary, certain feelings on Kant’s view will require an affective
component in order to meet the functional criterion. Instead, it is simply
a denial that this affective component is part of the essence of feeling or
emotion in general. Kant’s view is that any motivationally efficacious evaluative state that has the good as its object will be a feeling, whether or not
it is felt. By not requiring sensation, Kant is thus able to attribute
emotion to purely rational/spiritual beings, and so also to our own rational
nature.
10
C2 5:21. In this passage, Kant is discussing pleasure in connection to
the material principle of self-love. Despite the context in which it is presented, this definition holds more broadly. See, for example, LM 29:894,
where Kant says that ‘Pleasure is the representation of the agreement of an
object with the productive power of the soul [the faculty of desire], and displeasure the opposite.’ Or NF #1021 15:457/408, where he states that a ‘representation must…have a relation to the subject of determining it to action.
9
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Janelle DeWitt
In other words, pleasure is a representation of an object, not as it is in
itself, but as it relates to the subject. Or more specifically, it represents
how the object relates to the subject’s faculty of desire – the source of
his activity.11 Without this connection to the subject’s source of
activity, an object cannot move us to act. It is in this regard, where
pleasure is a type of judgment representing this relationship, that
Kant says the faculty of desire is determined by a pleasure in an
object. Motivating action (determining the will) is thus the function
of pleasure.
But perhaps the most striking discussion of this functional characterization of pleasure can be found in the Lectures on Metaphysics,
where Kant is discussing the moral feelings – feelings that he
admits would stretch the use of the term feeling beyond its ordinary
limits.
I am supposed to have a feeling of that which is not an object of
feeling, but rather which I cognize objectively through the understanding. Thus there is always a contradiction hidden in
here. For if we are supposed to do the good through a feeling,
then we do it because it is agreeable. But this cannot be, for the
good cannot at all affect our senses. But we call the pleasure in
the good a feeling because we cannot otherwise express the subjective
driving power of objective practical necessitation. [my italics]12
In this passage, Kant is saying that even though the good is not something I cognize through the senses (and hence involves no sensation
or felt quality), it is still a feeling because this cognition has a subjective driving power, i.e., it motivates.13
Now, to see how this view of feeling works, consider watching a
storm move in over Lake Michigan. That stormy weather can
This relation is a pleasure…’ (See also C2 5:9n, MM 6:212, C3 5:209, LPDR
28:1060 and NF #715 15:317/495.)
11
Kant refers to the subject of these judgments in a number of ways,
including the subject’s faculty of desire, life, productive power of soul, and
freedom. These are all references to the source of causality within the
subject – what makes the subject an active or living being (LM 28:247,
LM 29:891 and C2 5:9n).
12
LM 28:258.
13
The functional character described here as a subjective driving power
is expressed elsewhere as the promotion or furtherance of life, and as a ground
of an impulse to activity (where the impulse itself is a desire) (LM 28:247, G
4:422, LL 24:45/31 and NF #5448 18:185/415). All of these descriptions
are attempts to capture pleasure’s power to motivate.
8
Respect for the Moral Law
produce large waves and fresh, cool air does not in itself motivate me
to head to the lakefront for a walk. But when I hold a particular fascination with the changing moods of the lake, and recognize that I
have been inside all day writing and could use some fresh air, a
brewing storm does motivate me to head outside. The stormy air
and the crashing waves will help to clear my mind and stimulate
new ideas. Kant describes this relationship between the storm and
my subjective condition as a sort of ‘fit’ that promotes my life or
activity – in this case, my philosophical writing. The representation
of this fit, in the form of fascination and excitement at the wonders
of nature, is the pleasure that determines my will. Furthermore,
when I judge watching a storm in this way, as positively fitting
with my needs and activities, then I am at the same time judging it
to be good (i.e., to be pleasing). These pleasures, then, are a type of
evaluative judgment that involves the subjective predicates of good/
bad – or more specifically, of agreeable/disagreeable and (moral)
good/evil (where the use of evil distinguishes the moral good from
the generic good).14
The same holds for displeasure. If instead I were out sailing when
the storm approached, I would likely feel fear or anxiety rather than
excitement. The strong winds and high waves would increase the
chance of capsizing, putting my life at risk – i.e., they would negatively fit with my needs and activities. As a result, I would judge
the storm to be bad (i.e., displeasing), and immediately head to
shore to avoid it. Any object that neither pleases nor displeases me
in this way (neither promotes nor hinders my activity) leaves me motivationally disengaged. I am indifferent to it because it would have no
connection to my will at all, the source of my activity.15 So unless a
representation, of whatever kind (from physical objects to moral concepts), is connected to the faculty of desire in this way, it cannot
motivate. But any such connection is a feeling. It thus follows that
all motivation must go through the faculty of feeling, and so must
take the form of a pleasure – even the moral motive of respect. And
insofar as feelings are judgments that determine the will, I believe
Kant understands them to be practical cognitions, which he defines
as ‘cognition[s] having to do only with the determining grounds of
the will’.16
14
LM 28:245. The beautiful/ugly are also subjective predicates, but
since they are not directly connected to motivation and action (i.e., are not
practical pleasures), I will not discuss them here.
15
LM 28:253.
16
C2 5:20, see also C1 Bix-x and LL 24:58/42.
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Janelle DeWitt
We now have a general sketch of Kant’s functional account of
feeling. But where it is perhaps most evident is in the role he sees
the faculty of feeling playing in the overall structure of the mind.
This role has been obscured because most of us are accustomed to
thinking in terms of a bipartite structure, where the basic functions
of the mind are divided between its cognitive and desiderative
capacities. However, Kant has a tripartite theory, where the faculty
of feeling is considered to have equal standing with cognition and
desire. As a major faculty, feeling will have its own characteristic
function. And this function depends in large part on Kant’s understanding of the activities and limitations of the other two faculties,
and the connection required between them.
In its most general characterization, the faculty of cognition is, for
Kant, the faculty responsible for objective or theoretical cognition.
This faculty allows us to distinguish objects by means of theoretical
predicates, such as shapes and colors, which are properly attributed
to the object. The predicates of good and bad, however, must be excluded from this faculty because, as evaluative predicates, they are
not properly attributed to the object. If the object itself were pleasing/good, then the subject’s agency would be compromised,
because any time the object were cognized, the subject would be
motivated to pursue it. This response to the object, however,
would not really be an action, but instead a mere mechanical reaction
to the perception of agreeableness, like the motion of sunflowers in
relation to sunlight. So in order for there to be genuine action, the
subject’s response to the object must be able to take into account
his own particular needs and circumstances, because it is only by
doing so that he can act with a conception of his own individual happiness or well-being in mind. But, when his subjective condition is
taken into account, the predicate good cannot then be attributed to
the object itself, but to the object only when considered in relation
to the subject. Hence, it cannot be a theoretical predicate.17 (We
will see, however, that the objective pleasures of reason will prove
to be an interesting exception to this.) As a result, the faculty of cognition is restricted to the theoretical judgment that a storm produces
cool air and high waves. Any further judgment that it is good (i.e.,
satisfies a need) lies outside of this faculty’s domain.
The faculty of desire, in contrast, is active over the domain of the
good and bad, whereby we pursue the former and avoid the latter.
The principle of this faculty is the familiar ‘I desire nothing but
what pleases [the good], and avoid nothing but what displeases [the
17
10
LM 28:246, LM 29:877–8, NF #823 15:367/506 and MM 6:211–13.
Respect for the Moral Law
bad]’. Of special note here, however, is what Kant immediately goes
on to say, ‘But representations cannot be the cause of an object where
we have no pleasure or displeasure in it. This is therefore the subjective condition by which alone a representation can become the cause
of an object.’18 In other words, I cannot simply desire to head outside
because I represent stormy weather. Rather, it is only after the cool air
and high surf have been judged to be good (pleasing) that I can have
such a desire. It follows that the function of the faculty of desire is not
to judge an object to be good and thereby pursue it, but to desire/
pursue it because it has already been judged to be good. (This distinction between judgments of the good and the faculty of desire is
important, because without it, Kant would be unable to account
for non-practical pleasures – pleasures that can be understood to
promote certain mental activities such as aesthetic contemplation
and the assumption of the postulates of pure practical reason (i.e.,
faith).)19 As a result, the activity of the faculty of desire is the actual
movement toward the object to be brought about. Something else
must initiate that movement.
As Kant describes cognition and desire, there is no overlap between
them. The faculty of cognition can tell us that a storm produces cool
air and high surf, but not that this weather is good for a stimulating
walk. However, I can only desire the good. So without something
connecting these two faculties, there is no way that I can come to
desire a walk on the lakefront. I am left motivationally inert. Kant
makes this point explicitly when he briefly considers this scenario.
‘If we take away the faculty of pleasure and displeasure from all
rational beings, and enlarge their faculty of cognition however
much, then they would cognize all objects without being moved by
them; everything would be the same to them, for they would lack
the faculty for being affected by objects (my italics).’20 By the
phrase ‘to be moved by an object’, Kant means to be moved to
activity (i.e., to be motivated). He is thus saying that the faculty of
cognition alone cannot move the subject because, as noted earlier,
theoretical cognition only registers the properties of the object.
This leaves the faculty of cognition disconnected from the faculty
of desire. But, as Kant envisions the mind, this connection is essential
for motivation to be possible at all. The faculty of feeling fills this gap
by being the faculty responsible for practical cognition – i.e., the
faculty that judges the object of a representation of cognition to be
18
19
20
LM 29:894, see also LM 29:899–900.
C2 5:119–120, LM 29:877–8, MM 6:211–14 and C2 5:142–6.
LM 28:246, see also LPDR 28:1065–6.
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Janelle DeWitt
good in relation to a subject, and so brings the representation under
the active scope of the faculty of desire, our source of causality for
making the object of that representation actual.21 As the faculty
responsible for practical cognition, we can now see why Kant elevates
feeling to one of the three major faculties of the mind. It is the faculty
central to Kant’s entire account of motivation, for moral and nonmoral action alike.
3. The Lower and Higher Faculties of Feeling
One of Kant’s overarching goals in developing his moral theory is to
find a non-empirical source of motivation. But where there is motivation, feeling must be involved. So corresponding to the two types of
motivation, there must be at least two types of pleasure, one empirical
and one non-empirical.22 This distinction in pleasure is reflected in
the division Kant makes between the lower and higher sub-faculties
of feeling. He describes this division immediately after making
similar divisions in the faculties of cognition and desire.
Likewise the faculty of pleasure and displeasure is also a higher or
lower faculty. The lower faculty of pleasure and displeasure is a
power to find satisfaction or dissatisfaction in the objects which
affect us. The higher faculty of pleasure and displeasure is a
power to sense a pleasure and displeasure in ourselves, independently of objects. All lower faculties constitute sensibility and all
higher faculties constitute intellectuality… – But intellectuality is
a faculty of representation, of desires, or of the feeling of pleasure
and displeasure, so far as one is wholly independent of objects.23
As described in this passage, the higher sub-faculties constitute intellectuality (i.e., self-activity or spontaneity), and the lower constitute
sensibility. The corresponding sub-faculties of cognition are the understanding and sensibility; those of desire, will and choice.
However, despite the familiarity of these divisions in cognition and
desire, the parallel division in the faculty of feeling has been largely
missed. (One reason for this might be that Kant never assigns specific
names to the sub-faculties, referring to them instead by the objects
and/or products of each – their objects as the good/evil and the
21
LM 29:890.
LM 29:1024 and C3 5:205–6.
23
LM 28:228–9, see also LM 29:877, LM 28:252, A 7:141fn24,
A 7:159fn53 and C3 20:245.
22
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Respect for the Moral Law
agreeable/disagreeable, and their products as moral/intellectual feelings and pathological/sensible feelings, respectively.) But I believe
this division is the key to understanding Kant’s account of moral
motivation. As a form of sensibility, we know that the lower faculty
of feeling will be empirical. And as a form of intellectuality, the
higher faculty of feeling will be non-empirical or rational. If this distinction holds, then the higher faculty will be well-suited to explain
the feeling of respect as a moral motive. But first, Kant must give
an account of these two very different types of feeling.
It is at this point that Kant’s turn to a functional/judgment account
of feeling reveals itself to be one of the crucial moves in developing his
theory of motivation. These two radically different types of pleasure
are possible because of the underlying functional structure they share.
To be a feeling of any type, an object must be judged to fit with a
subject in a way that furthers the subject’s life or activity. If the
object furthers life, then it (as the object of the pleasure) determines
the will. Within this basic form, certain variations are possible. The
object of pleasure can be anything from fresh air to a purely
rational/moral concept such as truthfulness. The principle can be
either the empirical principle of self-love, or the a priori principle
of morality. Finally, the subject can be one of two principles of life
in a finite, rational being – its animal (physical) life or its spiritual
(rational) life (corresponding to the lower and higher faculties of
desire).24 Animal life involves natural causality, or causality in
relation to our physical nature. Spiritual life, in contrast, involves
freedom, or causality in relation to our rational nature.
With this general outline in hand, we can now turn to the individual sub-faculties, beginning with the lower feelings. Though this
faculty has a rather complicated and interesting structure, one that
I will not be able to do full justice to here, a quick sketch will nevertheless provide an intuitive framework against which to contrast
Kant’s (less intuitive) account of the higher faculty.
The Lower Faculty of Feeling
The fascination and excitement felt in watching a storm discussed
above is an example of a lower feeling. With these feelings, there is
a sensible need, stemming from my animal nature, that drives the
judgment – e.g., to clear my mind. Certain objects are considered
in relation to these needs, some of which are judged to fit. When
24
LM 28:286 and LM 28:248.
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Janelle DeWitt
there is a positive fit, the principle of self-love is determined to hold
between the object and the subject. And since a sensible need is the
basis of this judgment, the resulting pleasure will determine choice
(the lower faculty of desire) to make the object actual. Finally, when
an object is determined to fit in this way, it is judged to be agreeable,
the particular predicate Kant assigns to judgments of the lower feelings (along with disagreeable).25
The basic structure of the lower pleasures also determines how they
motivate. That is, their motivational power stems from the fit they
represent. I judge that the approaching storm fits with my needs
because the fresh air and mental stimulation it provides will clear
my mind and so help promote my writing. Implicit in this representation of fit, then, is the expectation of a need being satisfied by the
storm. It is this expectation that ultimately motivates me to head
outside. Now, Kant distinguishes the actual satisfaction of my
need, i.e., the mental clarity I come to feel, as a second type of
pleasure – what he specifically refers to as sensations of gratification/
enjoyment and pain.26 In the case of the lower faculty, these two
types of pleasure (what I will call judgments and sensations of pleasures, respectively) must work together to motivate. That is, the
25
LM 28:248.
These are probably the closest things in Kant to the ordinary notion
we have of ‘sensations of pleasure and pain’, though I believe he understands
them more broadly. That is, gratification need not have any particular sensation-like phenomenology, though it often will (and so will be what provides the affective character of emotion). Instead, it only seems to require
some sort of (empirical) conscious registration or awareness that an action
was successful in satisfying a need, in whatever way that registration
might manifest itself. Because of this, two very different experiences, the
physical stimulation from a walk in cool air or the psychological enjoyment
of talking with an old friend, can both qualify as a form of gratification. And
though we might not call the enjoyment felt in the latter case a sensation, on
Kant’s account this is how it would be described. These sensations are the
product of the interior sense (distinct from the inner sense of time) when
it is affected by a representation from the faculty of cognition. Because of
this, I believe Kant uses the term Empfindung, as opposed to the more
general term Gefühl, in order to refer specifically to sensations of gratification/enjoyment and pain. As the product of a sense, gratification is thus
an element of our sensibility (LM 29:1009, C3 5:205–7 and C3 5:331).
(Kant’s references to the interior sense are vague and infrequent, and he
admits at one point to have not yet fully worked out the concept (LM
29:890). Even so, it still appears to play a significant role in his conception
of pleasure. See section 15 of the Anthropology (7:153) for a very brief
discussion.)
26
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lower judgments of pleasure can motivate only because of the expectation of gratification (satisfaction of a need) they represent. This
follows because it is only through the gratification of a need that
our animal life is furthered. The ability to gratify is thus the condition
of the stormy weather being able to determine the will.27 Because of
this condition, I am said to watch the storm for the sake of the expected gratification. So when I judge the storm as agreeable, I am
judging it to be good for satisfying my needs. However, in doing so,
the representation of the expected gratification always mediates
between the subject and the object. Hence, the object is judged as
mediately good, rather than good in itself.28 It is for this reason that
Kant calls all lower pleasures forms of self-love – because they are
all ultimately directed towards satisfying one’s own needs.
Given the description above, it might appear that the possible
objects of the lower judgments of feeling would be restricted to physical objects or states of affairs. But this isn’t quite the case. The object
can still be a representation of reason, even of morality – but with one
caveat. The only way that such a representation can be judged to fit
with the subject’s animal nature is by bringing a state of affairs
about in the world to match the concept. This follows because the
need governing the fit in the lower feelings between the concept of
morality (the object) and the subject (his animal nature) requires sensible gratification. So even in the case of a moral concept, the resulting
pleasure is an attitude directed not internally to the form of willing
itself, but externally to the state of affairs that will result from the
action. In other words, lower judgments of feeling can only provide
the matter of the will. Because of this, I distinguish these feelings
as material pleasures (as opposed to what will be the formal pleasures
of the higher faculty). Material pleasures, then, are the specific pleasures that motivate in terms of expected gratification, whether or not
they involve an intellectual representation (such as a moral concept).
27
Clearly, stormy weather is not agreeable to everyone. Kant notes this
by pointing out that the expected gratification that serves as the basis for my
judging such weather to be agreeable is dependent on the privately valid
grounds of my own senses (LM 28:248, LM 29:892 and NF #1512
15:836/525–6). I.e., because I happen to have a certain sensible constitution
(having been raised in tornado alley), stormy weather has a positive effect on
me. So this judgment holds only for me – i.e., it is merely subjective (C3 5:212
and NF #1850 16:137/536). For these judgments to be objective, in the
sense of holding universally and necessarily for all beings (and so to be suitable for moral motivation), a different ground of validity will be required.
28
LM 28:252, LM 29:891, C2 5:59, C2 5:62 and C3 5:207.
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Kant’s case of the naturally sympathetic man provides an example
here.29 The object of his pleasure might be the rational concept of
beneficence. But for this concept to be an object of a lower pleasure,
it must promise gratification in order for it to motivate. That is, the
action represented by the concept must be judged to fit with the
man’s psychological need to spread joy around him, a need which
is gratified only when he succeeds in making others happy.30 If
there were no such need, then the representation of the action
would fail to motivate. His goal then is not to will well (by willing
beneficence), but to bring about a certain state of affairs in the
world by which his psychological need will be satisfied. In this situation, the moral concept would essentially become a means to this
gratification, and therefore would be judged as mediately good,
rather than good in itself. This is the model of moral motivation
(what I call the Epicurean model) that Kant is at pains to reject in
the second Critique.31 The adherents to this model assume that the
rational source of the motivating concept is enough to establish its
moral status. But as Kant shows, if a judgment of pleasure, even in
a moral concept, motivates only in terms of the gratification presupposed, then it is a form of empirical, material motivation unsuitable
for genuine moral action.32
29
G 4:398 and C2 5:34.
Some have thought that Kant’s description of the sympathetic man is
problematic because it actually portrays him as selfish rather than altruistic.
But to act from a psychological need does not necessarily entail selfishness.
As I believe Kant sees it, the man is altruistic because of the sort of needs that
he has – he has a need to help others, and he takes immediate satisfaction in
doing so when he can. This is an ordinary description of natural altruism –
someone who just enjoys helping others. A selfish person, in contrast, may
have a need to help others, but does not immediately enjoy doing so. Instead,
she helps others only as a means to some further end, such as a good reputation, and it is only this further end that she finds gratifying.
31
C2 5:23–26 and C3 5:208–9.
32
A clear statement of this position can be found at C2 5:23, ‘If a representation, even though it may have its seat and origin in the understanding,
can determine choice only by presupposing a feeling of pleasure in the
subject, its being a determining ground of choice is wholly dependent
upon the nature of inner sense [interior sense], namely that this can be agreeably affected by the representation.’ Kant stresses this point again at C2
5:24–5, where he states ‘…pure reason must be practical of itself and alone,
that is, it must be able to determine the will by the mere form of a practical
rule without presupposing any feeling and hence without any representation
of the agreeable or disagreeable as the matter of the faculty of desire, which is
always an empirical condition of principles’ (see also C2 5:25, C2 5:62, C2
30
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Kant’s condition for moral motivation is thus clear—no feeling
that presupposes gratification (i.e., no material feeling), regardless
of the source of its representation, can be a moral motive. So the motivational force of the higher feelings will have to be based on something other than the satisfaction of a sensible need.
The Higher Faculty of Feeling
In the Groundwork, Kant contrasts his characterization of respect as a
feeling ‘self-wrought by means of a rational concept’ with a description of feelings that are ‘received by means of influence’ (i.e., result
from an object affecting the senses).33 He mirrors this contrast in
the second Critique, when he states
This feeling (under the name of moral feeling) is therefore produced solely by reason. It does not serve for appraising actions,
and certainly not for grounding the objective moral law itself,
but only as an incentive to make this law its maxim. But what
name could one more suitably apply to this singular feeling
which cannot be compared to any pathological feeling? It is of
such a peculiar kind that it seems to be at the disposal only of
reason, and indeed of practical pure reason.34
From these two passages, we see that Kant characterizes respect as an
a priori feeling that is necessarily connected to pure practical reason.
In other words, he thinks of respect as a higher feeling. But unfortunately, these passages do not tell us much about the nature of respect
in virtue of this fact. For this, an account of the structure of the higher
feelings is needed.
As a feeling, they will share the same basic functional structure
as the lower feelings – an object is judged to fit with the subject
in a way that furthers the life or activity of the subject. And
in being judged to further this life, the will is determined. But
from this point on, their structures diverge in several significant
ways.
5:92 and G 4:413). The feeling being ‘presupposed’ in these passages is
clearly gratification, as indicated by his references to the inner/interior
sense and to the agreeable.
33
G 4:401n.
34
C2 5:76.
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The primary point of divergence is in how the subject is to be understood.35 The lower pleasures were concerned with the subject’s
animal life – the particular activity of the subject directed towards
maintaining or promoting his physical/sensible well-being.
Furthering that life was understood as satisfying the sensible needs
stemming from his finite nature. The higher feelings, in contrast,
are concerned with the subject’s spiritual or rational life. This life
consists of a very different sort of activity, one that can be variously
described as rational, spontaneous, or free. In other words, it is a
type of activity whose source of causality is other than (and so independent of) natural causality.36 Because of this, Kant also characterizes the subject of these judgments as freedom.37 When he does, I
believe we move closer to the specific activity he had in mind – universal law-giving.38 This law-giving activity, in turn, determines the
remaining features of the higher feelings.
Since the activity of the spiritual life does not originate from the
being’s finite nature, it involves no sensible needs, and so no gratification. To put this another way, we do not have a sensible need to will,
or even to will well, so we cannot feel the gratification of a need in the
successful activity of our own willing (though we can feel self-contentment, a sensation of pleasure distinct from gratification because
it is not based on a need and so is not presupposed as a condition of
moral motivation).39 Furthering the spiritual life, then, is not to be
understood as a promotion of the well-being of the subject, rational
or otherwise.
Instead, for the spiritual life to be furthered, an object must be
judged to fit with, or promote, its universal law-giving activity.
Implicit in the representation of this fit must be the form of this
activity. That is, in order for anything to further the activity of the
spiritual life, it must itself qualify for, in the sense of having the
proper form, a giving of universal law. However, this form is
35
LM 28:248.
C2 5:29, C2 5:55 and C2 5:67.
37
‘Now if I feel that something agrees with the highest degree of
freedom, thus with the spiritual life, then that pleases me. This pleasure is
intellectual pleasure. One has a satisfaction with it, without its gratifying
one. Such intellectual pleasure is only in morality… All morality is the
harmony of freedom with itself. E.g., whoever lies does not agree with his
freedom, because he is bound by the lie. Whatever harmonizes with
freedom agrees with the whole of life. Whatever agrees with the whole of life,
pleases’ (LM 28:249–50, see also C2 5:73 and C2 5:132).
38
C2 5:33.
39
LM 28:257–8, C2 5:38–9 and NF #7202 19:279/467.
36
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Respect for the Moral Law
nothing other than the moral law itself (the formal principle of universal law-giving). So any object that is judged to fit with the form represented by the moral law will at the same time be judged to further
the universal law-giving activity of the spiritual life, and so to further
its freedom. In essence, the moral law is the form of the activity of the
spiritual life itself.40 Therefore, in the higher feelings, the principle
(the moral law) and the subject (the spiritual life) are necessarily
linked.
Kant gives a detailed argument for this mutual implication in
chapter one of the second Critique. This argument is familiar
enough, so I will not further explain the connection here. However,
this link is important because it marks a significant change in what
ultimately grounds the fit between the subject and the object. That
is, with the lower feelings, underlying the fit was the relationship
between the object and the subject’s needs. Thus, the gratification expected to result from this fit dictated the principle. But with the
higher feelings, this order is reversed. The necessary link between
the subject and the principle grounds the fit. Thus, the principle dictates the objects, and does so without involving our sensibility. This
reversal in concepts, where the moral principle must come before the
concept of the good (the object of the higher feeling), is what Kant
states is required to keep the moral principle from being based on a
sensation of pleasure (gratification), and so from being empirical.41
It is in following this point (the order between the principle and
the concept of the good) that Kant sometimes refers to the lower pleasures as those which ‘precede’ the moral law, and the higher pleasures
as those which can only ‘follow’ from it. With the lower feelings, the
expectation of gratification precedes the principle in the order of determination. With the higher feelings, the feeling itself (as a judgment)
follows from the principle as its result.42
At this point, we have the subject of a higher feeling – the spiritual
life, and the principle necessarily associated with it – the moral law.
Together these determine which objects will fit with the universal
law-giving activity of the spiritual life. But what sort of objects
40
C2 5:73.
C2 5:9 and C2 5:58.
42
NF #7320 19:316/478, C2 5:62 and C2 5:117. This is in contrast to
how the point is often understood, where ‘preceding/succeeding the moral
law’ is thought to imply preceding/succeeding the determination of the
will, which would then make respect a sensation of pleasure consequent to
this determination (and so not a motive). This is the position Guyer
appears to take.
41
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might these be? With the lower feelings, we saw that the objects could
take a wide range of forms, from physical objects to concepts of
reason. The opposite, as one might expect, holds true for the
higher feelings. Clearly, physical objects or states of affairs, i.e.,
things that are empirically conditioned, are immediately excluded
from consideration because these objects require a physical need
being satisfied by their existence. Because of this need, the objects
would then have to relate to the animal, rather than the spiritual,
life of the subject, making it a lower feeling. So any object of pleasure
that is external to the will itself will necessarily be an object of the
lower faculty.
It follows then that the objects of the higher feelings must be
internal to the activity of the will – i.e., they must be general concepts
of action. But many of these concepts will not fit either because they
do not contain the right form. False promising, e.g., is a concept that,
when judged in relation to the freedom of more than one will, gives
rise to a contradiction. In other words, it is a concept that hinders
the freedom/activity of the will to which one is falsely promising.
Therefore, it does not qualify as an instance of universal law-giving.
From the failure of false-promising, we see that the object of a
higher feeling must be a concept of action that can potentially fit
with, or promote, the spiritual activity of all rational beings. In
other words, the concept of action must be judged to fit with the
essence of freedom itself, and in doing so, please any being that has
a source of freedom within him – whether God, angels, Saturnians,
or the like.43 The only concepts that can fit this condition are those
of pure practical reason (the moral concepts), because they alone
can qualify as a universal law (with respect to either the law’s form,
or its necessary objects).44 In the Lectures on Metaphysics, Kant
43
‘…the [morally] good must also please those beings who have no such
sensibility like ours, but that does not hold with the agreeable and the beautiful’ (LM 28:252, see also C3 5:209–10 and LM 29:892). This is why Kant
states that God and holy wills are motivated by the feeling of love for the
moral law, because even in an impassible spiritual being such as God, the
faculty of desire is determined by a feeling.
44
In other words, such a concept either qualifies as a giving of universal
law itself, or it helps to promote this law-giving activity in other ways. An
instance of the latter is the concept of humanity as an end in itself. This
concept is not a representation of an action, or an object to be effected,
but is instead a representation of something we should not act against. If
we do, then our law-giving activity will fail to be universal. So in adopting
humanity as an object of the will, we can be said to further its universal lawgiving activity by preventing possible violations/hindrances to it (G 4:437
20
Respect for the Moral Law
gives two examples of these (moral) concepts – truthfulness and
alms-giving.45 When truthfulness, e.g., is judged to fit with the universal law-giving activity of freedom, one is, in essence, universalizing the concept of action to see if any contradictions arise. If none
do, then truthfulness is judged to contain the proper form, and so
would qualify as an instance of universal law. That is, the form of
the moral law is recognized to be implicit in the concept itself.46
Because of this, when truthfulness determines the will, it increases
the will’s universal law-giving activity (by being an instance of that
activity), and so furthers the subject’s spiritual life.47 As a result,
truthfulness is judged to be morally good, the specific predicate
Kant reserves for objects of the higher feelings.48 In contrast, the
concept of false promising is judged to hinder the spiritual life (by
suggesting an action that cannot be universalized), and so is at the
same time judged to be evil. Because the objects of these feelings
are concepts that are internal to the activity of the will itself, and so
independent of any object or state of affairs that might be brought
about in the world, I call these formal, as opposed to material, pleasures. That is, they are pleasures in the form of good willing itself
(and as such, they are emotions strikingly similar to Stoic eupatheiai).
Now, when the higher pleasures judge a concept to be morally
good, they are judging it to be good in itself, rather than good for satisfying a need. As noted earlier with the lower pleasures, the gratification of a need is the condition of an object fitting with the subject. So
when I head outside for some fresh air, it is for the sake of gratifying a
need. Hence, the fresh air is only mediately good. But a higher feeling,
in being independent of any needs, must have a different condition of
fit – the moral law. So when I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of
some need or further end (such as garnering trust), and so not for
the sake of gratification. Instead, it is for the sake of the moral law
itself, where the moral law (i.e., qualifying for universal law-giving)
is the condition. So in a word, truthfulness pleases the will in itself,
and C2 5:73). In addition, I believe the concept of humanity can also directly
promote the activity of the will when considered as the basis for the duties to
humanity. If so, then the love of one’s neighbor (i.e., love of humanity) – one
of the four feelings in the Metaphysics of Morals thought to ‘lie at the basis of
morality’ – is also a higher pleasure and so a potential moral motive (MM
6:399–402 and G 4:428–9).
45
LM 28:253.
46
G 4:402 and C2 5:109–10.
47
LM 29:896.
48
LM 28:248–9.
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and not in terms of what it promises. Therefore, it is good in itself, and
so immediately good.49
Kant also argues that truthfulness is judged to be good in itself, or
objectively good, because this judgment has a certain type of validity.
Because truthfulness is judged purely in relation to the subject’s
rational nature, and so independently of his sensibility, this judgment
represents a relationship to an object necessarily shared by all rational
beings – i.e., it is a ‘universal judgment that has universal validity
and is valid for everyone independent of the particular conditions
of the subject’,50 where being independent of subjective conditions
(sensibility) is a criterion for practical objective validity.51 Because
they are based on universally valid grounds, Kant calls these feelings
objective. This is in contrast to the lower feelings, which he describes
as merely subjective because they are based on the privately valid
grounds of the senses, and thus hold only for the subject making
the judgment.52 Because the higher feelings are objectively valid
49
C2 5:59, C2 5:62, C3 5:207, LM 29:891–2 and NF #1020 15:456/
407–8. In other words, whatever establishes the condition of the fit is
what I believe ultimately determines the will. This is gratification with
the lower pleasures, because an object that is not represented as promising
gratification cannot motivate. With the higher feelings, it is the form of universal law-giving (the moral law) contained in the moral concept of truthfulness. If truthfulness did not have this form, then it too would not motivate
(because it would not further the spiritual life of the subject). In both cases,
the condition is contained in the concept or representation of whatever determines the will, and so is what ultimately does the motivational heavylifting. This relationship between the object of the pleasure and its condition
for motivating can be understood as the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of the will (to
follow a distinction made by St. Anselm of Canterbury in chapter 12 of De
veritate). The object is what the will hopes to achieve, and the why is the
reason for willing it (gratification or morality).
50
LM 28:248, see also C3 5:209–10, C3 5:212–13, LM 28:252–3, LM
28:257–8, NF #711 15:315–6/495, NF #824 15:368/507 and NF #6598
19:103/420.
51
Kant briefly mentions this criterion for objective validity in the practical domain at C2 5:21, where he states that ‘it is requisite to reason’s lawgiving that it should need to presuppose only itself, because a rule is
objectively and universally valid only when it holds without the contingent,
subjective conditions that distinguish one rational being from another (my
italics).’
52
Kant calls the lower feelings merely subjective because they are subjective in two different senses. In the primary sense, both higher and lower
feelings are subjective because they are practical. That is, they represent the
relation of an object to a subject, and it is in virtue of this represented relation
22
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judgments that determine the will, they have the full status of a practical cognition.
Finally, because these feelings are judgments that hold universally
and necessarily for all rational beings, a moral concept such as truthfulness can be the ‘very same determining ground of the will in all cases
and for all rational beings.’53 In other words, these judgments generate the basis for morality, because they provide a universal standpoint
(freedom in general) from which to view our actions. When we all
judge our actions from this same standpoint, we share the same determining ground. As a consequence, our higher volitions will necessarily be in harmony with each other. And this harmony is the
essence of Kantian morality.54
At this point, we can now put Kant’s definition of the higher
faculty of feeling into context. He states that
Objective satisfaction or dissatisfaction [higher feelings of pleasure or displeasure], or judging objects according to universally
valid grounds of the power of cognition, is the higher faculty of
pleasure and displeasure. This is the faculty for judging of an
object whether it pleases or displeases from cognition of the understanding according to universally valid principles. If something is an object of intellectual satisfaction, then it is good; if
to the subject that they motivate. But the lower feelings are also subjective
because they are based on the particular sensible constitution of the
subject, i.e., his contingent needs and circumstances. These feelings must
have this subjective basis because their primary function is to promote the
subject’s well-being (by conferring value on an object in terms of its relation
to the needs of the subject). The higher feelings, in contrast, are objective in
this sense because they judge a concept to agree with the activity of rational
nature itself, and so to be universally pleasing to all rational beings. So unlike
agreeableness, moral goodness is a property of the concept itself. As an objective property, when the concept is cognized by feeling (i.e., cognized in
relation to the subject’s will), a determining ground is necessarily produced.
Thus, we are always disposed to moral action regardless of our circumstances
(and will so act as long as no hindrance from a lower feeling is encountered).
This is part of what makes these feelings moral. It is in being able to characterize the higher feelings in this way, as both subjective and objective, that
Kant is able to explain how the objective moral law can become subjective,
i.e., how there can be a purely rational moral motive (LM 28:257–8, C2
5:73 and C3 20:245).
53
C2 5:25.
54
C2 5:28, NF #6621 19:114–5/425–6 and NF #7202 19:279/467.
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Janelle DeWitt
it is an object of intellectual dissatisfaction, then it is evil. – Good
is what must please everyone necessarily.55
A higher feeling is thus an a priori judgment representing a fit
between truthfulness and freedom (two a priori concepts of reason)
according to the principle of morality (an a priori law). From this representation of fit, truthfulness is judged to be good in itself, and so
morally good. It is thus considered to contain the form of the moral
law, and so when it determines the will, so, too, does the moral law
itself.
We can now come full circle and return to Kant’s discussion of the
higher faculties of the mind. Kant identified the higher faculties as
forms of intellectuality, spontaneity or self-activity, which are the
marks of our rational capacities. The higher faculty of cognition is
thus reason itself. The pure will, as the higher faculty of desire, is
identified with reason in its practical function. Now we can make
the final identification. Since the higher feelings are universally and
objectively valid, a priori judgments, they must be a product of
reason. So the higher faculty of feeling, as their source, must be identical to a form of reason as well. But rather than specify a third function of reason, I believe Kant includes it, along with desire, under the
general heading of practical reason, because it borrows its principle of
judgment from the higher faculty of desire. To put this another way,
both are forms of practical reason because both are ultimately needed
in order to will at all (feeling being the means for bringing certain representations under the purview of desire). This identification of the
higher faculty with a form practical reason thus makes sense of the
seemingly inconsistent ways that Kant refers to the determining
ground of the will – as reason itself, as the moral law, and as
respect. Because respect is a higher feeling, and so is identical to an
activity of reason based on the moral law, these three references are
roughly equivalent.
4. Respect
With this new account of feeling, the problem we began with has been
resolved. It was previously assumed that all feelings were empirical,
and so as a feeling, respect was incompatible with being a moral
motive. But when respect is properly understood as a purely rational
higher feeling, no such problem arises. As an action-initiating
55
24
LM 28:249.
Respect for the Moral Law
evaluative judgment, respect qualifies as both a feeling and a moral
motive without violating the metaphysical constraints of Kant’s
theory. However, this cannot yet be the full story. Respect is the
moral feeling found in sensibly affected creatures – creatures with
both rational and animal natures. This is in contrast to love for the
moral law found in holy wills and God, a feeling distinct from
respect in that these beings do not have potentially wayward inclinations to control.56 It thus follows that the intersection of two distinct natures in some creatures poses an additional challenge for
Kant, a challenge that I believe his specific account of respect in
the second Critique was developed to answer.
So far, the higher and lower faculties of feeling have been described
as two discrete sources of motivation. Given that animals have no
spiritual nature, and God has no animal nature, this would make
sense. The actions of animals must be determined by the lower feelings alone, and those of God solely by the higher. Human beings,
however, as finite rational creatures, possess both of these natures.
As a consequence, two potentially independent sources of motivation
are contained within a single being, and this creates a problem. If
these sources function independently (i.e., as fully determining or
sufficient motives), they could conflict – e.g., our lower nature
might motivate us to lie to achieve some end, while our higher
nature motivates us to avoid lying, regardless of the end to be
achieved. In such a case, either our agency would fragment, or our
faculty of desire would contain a contradiction, both of which are
deeply problematic. So in order to maintain the unity of our psychology, one or the other must emerge as the dominant, or sufficient,
motive.57
Intellectualist accounts of morality, most notably the Stoics, often
suggest that we should operate exclusively from our rational nature by
simply suppressing our lower nature. Though Kant is often portrayed as holding this view, it is actually not an option for him. As
finite creatures, we must be able to maintain our physical existence
by satisfying our basic needs. So if the lower feelings were to be suppressed, then the higher feelings would have to step up and subsume
this role within their general function. As it turns out, however, they
are not suitable for this task. In order to satisfy a physical need, we
must be able to engage in a particular action in the world – i.e.,
I must actually go outside for a walk in order to clear my head. But
this sort of action requires the adoption of an empirical object or
56
57
C2 5:83–4, C2 5:32, G 4:414 and G 4:439.
R 6:36 and A 7:277.
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Janelle DeWitt
state of affairs as the matter of my will. The problem is, because the
higher feelings are formal, they cannot provide this type of matter.
Instead, they can only motivate me to adopt general principles of
good-willing, such as honesty, and this activity is confined to the
will itself. It thus follows that the higher feelings alone cannot
promote my physical well-being. Somehow the lower feelings, as
material feelings, must be involved. It is because of this that Kant describes them as ‘an unavoidable determining ground of [our] faculty
of desire’.58
This is where the particular problem for respect surfaces. How can
a feeling of one type emerge as the sufficient motive, without also
necessarily suppressing the feelings of the other type? The default
answer points to the relative strength of the two feelings. The strongest feeling dominates by inhibiting only those weaker feelings in
conflict with it. But Kant cannot adopt this solution for two related
reasons. First, it is a purely passive, weight model of motivation
whereby the strongest feeling essentially moves us to act. Morality,
however, requires active motivation – i.e., we must freely determine
ourselves to act.59 More importantly, however, it would fail to
explain how the two feelings can be properly or objectively
ordered. When a concept such as honesty, as the object of a higher
feeling, determines the will (the higher faculty), it has the superior
status of an unconditional law governing the faculty of desire.
Because of this, respect cannot simply mingle with the lower feelings,
as if it were merely one among many to be compared and weighed.
Instead, when it motivates moral action, it must do so in part by
governing – i.e., by constraining and ordering our lower nature according to the moral law, thus bringing the manifold of our desires
into harmony. More specifically, it must impose its objects, the
moral concepts (the laws of the rational order), onto the lower feelings
(sensibility) in a way that allows the morally permissible inclinations
(the lower feelings and their associated desires), while excluding the
wayward/antithetical ones.60 As a result, respect cannot simply determine the will. It must also cross over into the natural order and
influence choice, the lower faculty of desire.61
58
C2 5:25, see also R 6:36, R 6:58, G 4:415 and LM 29:1016.
C2 5:23-25.
60
C2 5:65, C2 5:43, C2 5:78, C2 5:159 and G 4:395.
61
‘In general, nature seems to us to have in the end subordinated sensible needs for the sake of all our actions. Only it was necessary that our understanding at the same time projected universal rules, in accordance with
which we had to order, restrict, and make coherent the efforts at our
59
26
Respect for the Moral Law
The question still remaining, however, is how. It cannot directly
bring the lower feelings under its sphere of control, because the
lower feelings are not concepts of reason, and thus cannot be
objects of respect. So there must be some intermediary linking the
two feelings. The most likely candidate is a maxim, or subjective
principle of action (generated by choice in relation to an object of
the lower feelings), because it is on this subjective principle that
one actually comes to act. Put more simply, if respect cannot
govern the lower feelings directly, the next best option is for it to
guide or constrain on the basis of the principles of action they generate. So if the maxim, rather than the feeling giving rise to it, can
somehow be the object of respect, then Kant has solved his problem.
To see how this might work, consider the example of my father,
Dennis, a heating and air conditioning business owner. Because he
has a family, he has a need to provide for them (a form of love). In
response, his lower feelings judge that increasing his income will
help to satisfy this need. When it does, he sets it as an end to be
brought about. Moreover, the best way to do this, in his opinion, is
to be honest with his customers. When these are taken together,
they generate the maxim on which he acts, ‘to increase income by
honest business practices.’ Now, according to Kant, this maxim contains two elements – form and matter. The matter is the end to be
brought about through his action – a state of affairs in which his
business has increased. The form, in contrast, is an abstraction
from all the particulars of my father and his circumstances contained
in the maxim. The result of this abstraction is honesty, a general
concept of action. The distinction made here between form and
matter is important because each element reflects a very different
way my father can value his action. The matter is valued, and so
incorporated into his maxim, because it is judged to promote his
well-being. This makes the lower, material feeling the empirical determining ground of choice. The form, in contrast, is valued
because it is a concept of action that will promote his universal lawgiving nature – i.e., it is an object of respect. So when the form is
happiness, so that our blind impulses will not push us now here, now there,
just by chance. Since the latter commonly conflict with one another, a judgment was necessary, which with regard to all of these impulses projects rules
impartially, and thus in abstraction from all inclination, through the pure
will alone, which rules, valid for all actions and for all human beings,
would produce the greatest harmony of a human being with himself and
with others’ (NF #6621 19:114–5/425–6).
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Janelle DeWitt
judged to be morally good, respect is incorporated into the maxim as
the a priori determining ground of choice. Put another way, this judgment of respect is, in essence, an act of reason holding up the subjective maxim to the dictates of the objective moral law for approval.62
Thus, it is the very point at which pure reason becomes practical.
Because of this, Kant describes respect as ‘the consciousness of a
free submission of the will to the law.’63
We now see that both feelings are incorporated into the maxim, and
so both become determining grounds of choice, because both provide
reasons for willing that action. As a result, my father can act from both
self-love and respect. However, these two motives do not have the
same status within the maxim. When both are incorporated into a
single maxim, an order of subordination is forced upon them. That
is, because respect is recognized as the unconditional determining
ground, it emerges as the dominant or sufficient motive, and the
lower feeling is subordinated to it. So when my father acts from
respect, he is, in a sense, acting from a recognition that his own
pursuit of happiness is conditional upon his maxim qualifying as a
universal law. This makes it possible for him to pursue his morally
permissible material ends while still recognizing the unconditional
demand of conformity with the objective moral law. And when he
does, his higher and lower natures are unified into a single principle
of action, thereby preserving the integrity of his agency.64
But what happens, then, when these two feelings conflict and so
cannot be incorporated into the same maxim? This is where the constraining power of respect’s governance, colorfully described in the
second Critique, becomes most evident. Consider the case of my
father’s competitor, Jack. He also has a family, and so has a need to
provide for them. But because he likes to avoid hard work, he
prefers to increase his income by overbilling his customers when he
will not get caught. Taken together, these generate the maxim on
62
C2 5:32–34.
C2 5:80. If, in contrast, my father had acted unreflectively on the suggestion of his lower feeling (without first getting respect’s approval for his
maxim), then his action would have been merely in accordance with and
not for the sake of the moral law. In other words, he would have acted honestly only because he saw it as having prudential value, without also recognizing that it had unconditional moral value.
64
‘The praxis of morality thus consists in that formation of the inclinations and of taste which makes us capable of uniting the actions that
lead to our gratification with moral principles. This is the virtuous
person, consequently the one who knows how to conform his inclinations
to moral principles’ (NF #6619 19:113/425).
63
28
Respect for the Moral Law
which he would act, ‘to increase income by dishonestly overbilling
when possible.’ As with the earlier maxim, the matter here is
judged to be agreeable and so to promote his well-being. But the
form of the maxim – dishonesty – turns out instead to be a concept
that will hinder his universal law-giving nature. As a consequence,
it is judged to be evil and so to be unconditionally avoided. This
puts Jack in an interesting position. As with my father, he has both
an empirical and an a priori determining ground of choice available.
But since these two feelings now oppose each other, he can act on only
one. If he recognizes the unconditional status of respect, then it will
be the dominant motive and he will reject the dishonest maxim.
However, when the maxim is rejected, the matter – the object of
the lower feeling – is rejected with it. This then leaves his original
need unsatisfied, which results in the sensation of pain rather than
gratification. Kant describes this pain as the sensible feeling of humiliation that follows from respect’s thwarting of inclination.65 It is how
we come to feel (affectively) the constraint respect puts on the power
of choice. Kant makes one last point here. Whether respect positively
promotes our higher nature (as with my father) or negatively constrains the wayward tendencies of our lower nature (as with Jack), it
still meets Kant’s definition of a feeling. ‘For, whatever diminishes
the hindrances to an activity is a furthering of this activity itself.’66
Then again, Jack could also just ignore the demands of respect and
act on his dishonest maxim anyway. However, the only way for this
to be possible is if Jack’s judgment were somehow impaired, making
respect appear to have equal status with the lower feelings when it in
fact does not. There are two types of error in judgment that can cause
this to happen. The first is to some extent inevitable because Jack, as
a human being, is a finite creature with a limited rational capacity.
Because of this, his representation of a moral concept will always be,
to some extent, inaccurate.67 The less accurate it is, the less forceful respect’s authority will appear to be. This is why Kant frequently mentions that we should strive for purity in our representation of the moral
law, because this is how we cultivate the moral feeling of respect.68
But the more serious challenge to the authority of respect can be
found with the error prone lower feelings. Kant frequently notes
their tendency to charm, to distort our deliberative field, to alter
our attention, and other nefarious activities. They have this power
65
66
67
68
C2 5:75.
C2 5:79.
C2 5:151–161 and MM 6:399–400.
MM 6:400, C2 5:156–7, R 6:46, R 6:83, G 4:405 and G 4:410–11.
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Janelle DeWitt
because their motivational force is due, in part, to their influence on
attention and deliberation. As judgments about the agreeable, they
confer value onto objects on the basis of our needs. Our attention is
then directed to those objects so that the underlying need can be satisfied. The stronger the need, or the stronger the anticipation of pleasure in its satisfaction, the more valuable we judge the object to be,
and so the more the object will dominate our attention or deliberative
field. So when Jack faces a crisis, such as losing his home, his need to
provide for his family intensifies, which in turn gives a sense of elevated importance or urgency to the end of increasing his income.
When its importance begins to rival that of respect, Jack will then
be tempted to make an exception to the rule ‘just this one time’.
He still recognizes the authority of respect, but his intense fear for
his family temporarily clouds or overrides this authority because all
he can focus on is their well-being. When this happens, Kant calls
it a mere failure of virtue.69 The act is immoral, but Jack himself is
not yet evil.
However, if Jack’s lower feelings are left unchecked by reason, they
will eventually come to assert their own unconditional status, albeit
illegitimately – i.e., they will change from a form of self-love to
self-conceit.70 Because the function of a lower feeling is both to
confer value and to redirect attention in relation to that value, the
lower feelings must compete with each other for Jack’s attention.
This competition, in turn, encourages an inflation of value, because
the more attention a feeling can draw, the more likely its need will
be satisfied. So in order to keep the lower feelings in check, they
must be coupled with reflection – i.e., comparison with each other
and with the demands of respect. This reflection is important,
because without it, Jack will be incapable of either happiness or
worthiness to be happy (morality). More specifically, he will not be
able to bring the satisfaction of his needs into harmony with each
other or with the moral law. However, if the strength of a particular
lower feeling succeeds in becoming excessive, it will cause Jack’s attention to fixate on the particular object. And the more he fixates
on the object, the more importance it appears to have. As this interplay builds, it prevents reason, even in the form of respect, from any
type of reflection. This vicious cycle continues until the lower feeling
sets the satisfaction of the need (or happiness in general) as the unconditional end of his action, displacing conformity with the moral law.
In doing so, he elevates the status of his lower feelings above that of
69
70
30
MM 6:407–8 and G 4:424.
C2 5:74.
Respect for the Moral Law
respect, thus reversing their proper order of subordination. Jack now
does what morality requires only when it promotes his own self-interest. When this happens, Kant considers him to be in the throes of a
passion, the specific type of lower feeling responsible for vice.71 In
other words, Jack himself is now evil. So when reason is overtaken
by passion, it is not overwhelmed by a blind impulse, but rather by
a competing form of value judgment provided by the lower
feelings – i.e., evil has a ‘rational origin’.72
Once we understand the natural tendency of the lower feelings to
overestimate their own status, it becomes clear why Kant promotes
a sort of moral apathy – a moderation of the lower feelings that
prevent them from rising to the level of a passion.73 In other
words, he does not promote the suppression of all emotion stemming
from our lower nature, as the Stoics do. Instead, he follows Augustine
in focusing on only those emotions of our lower nature that ‘shut out
the sovereignty of reason’.74 The end of moral apathy, then, is to keep
the influence of the lower feelings in check so that respect always
remains in control. And keeping respect in control is, I believe, the
basis of Kantian virtue.75
71
A 7:252, A 7:265–7 and LL 24:161–7/127-32.
R 6:41. ‘The law rather imposes itself on him irresistibly, because of
his moral predisposition; and if no other incentive were at work against it, he
would also incorporate it into his supreme maxim as sufficient determination of his power of choice, i.e., he would be morally good. He is,
however, also dependent on the incentives of his sensuous nature because
of his equally innocent natural predisposition, and he incorporates them
too into his maxim (according to the subjective principle of self-love).
…Hence the difference, whether the human being is good or evil, must
not lie in the difference between the incentives that he incorporates into
his maxims (not in the material of the maxim) but in their subordination
(in the form of the maxim): which of the two he makes the condition of the
other. It follows that the human being (even the best) is evil only because
he reverses the moral order of his incentives in incorporating them into
his maxims. He indeed incorporates the moral law into those maxims, together with the law of self-love; since, however, he realizes that the two
cannot stand on an equal footing, but one must be subordinated to the
other as its supreme condition, he makes the incentive of self-love and
their inclinations the condition of compliance with the moral law’ (R 6:36,
see also R 6:21). Kant describes the principle of such a will as ‘Love yourself
above all, but God and your neighbor for your own sake’ (C2 5:83n).
73
C3 20:196, MM 6:408–9 and A 7:253–4.
74
A 7:251, see also Augustine, De civitate Dei XIV.9.
75
MM 6: 394, MM 6:408–9 and C2 5:84.
72
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Janelle DeWitt
In the end, we clearly see that respect is indeed one of the linchpins
of Kant’s moral theory. It is the point at which pure reason becomes
practical, and so the point at which morality becomes possible at all.
Kant emphatically describes this importance when he states that
respect is ‘an estimation of a worth that far outweighs any worth of
what is recommended by inclination, and that the necessity of my
action from pure respect for the practical law is what constitutes
duty, to which every other motive must give way because it is the condition of a will good in itself, the worth of which surpasses all else.’76
JANELLE DEWITT (dewitt@humnet.ucla.edu) is a graduate student at UCLA.
76
32
G 4:403.