Abstract
According to a common interpretation, most explicitly defended by Onora O’Neill and Patricia Kitcher, Kant held that epistemic obligations normatively depend on moral obligations. That is, were a rational agent not bound by any moral obligation, then she would not be bound by any epistemic obligation either. By contrast, in this paper, I argue that, according to Kant, some epistemic obligations are normatively independent from moral obligations, and are indeed normatively absolute. This view, which I call epistemicism, has two parts. First, it claims that in the absence of other kinds of obligations, rational agents would still be bound by these epistemic obligations, i. e., that the latter are normatively independent. Second, it claims that, no matter what other obligations are at stake, rational agents are bound by these epistemic obligations, i. e., the normativity of these epistemic obligations is absolute in that it cannot be undercut by any moral or other sort of obligation. The argument turns on an exploratory reading of Kant’s remarks in “What Is Orientation in Thinking?” (1786) about the maxim of “thinking for oneself” as the “supreme touchstone of truth”. In contrast to O’Neill and Kitcher, I argue that if we interpret this maxim as stating the unifying principle of theoretical and practical reason, then we must interpret it as stating an epistemic, and not merely practical imperative. This result, I argue, vindicates epistemicism and illuminates interesting lessons about Kant’s conception of the category of “epistemic” norms. Further, it helps us make headway with Kant’s enigmatic remarks about the unity of practical and theoretical reason in the Groundwork, the first and second Critiques, and the Lectures on Logic. On my proposal, principles of the practical and theoretical uses of reason are unified through a formal epistemic principle.
Allison, H. E. 2004. Kant’s Transcendental Idealism. New Haven/London.10.2307/j.ctt1cc2kjcSearch in Google Scholar
–. 1995. “On Naturalizing Kant’s Transcendental Psychology”. Dialectica 49, 335–51.10.1017/CBO9781139172875.006Search in Google Scholar
Ameriks, K. 2003. “Kant’s Deduction of Freeedom and Morality.” In his Interpreting Kant’s Critiques. Oxford.10.1093/0199247315.003.0007Search in Google Scholar
Arpaly, N. 2009. Merit, Meaning, and Human Bondage: An Essay on Free Will. Princeton.10.1515/9781400824502Search in Google Scholar
Atwell, J. E. 1986. Ends and Principles in Kant’s Moral Thought. Dordrecht.10.1007/978-94-009-4345-2Search in Google Scholar
Chignell, A. 2007. “Kant’s Concepts of Justification”. Noûs 41(1), 33–63.10.1111/j.1468-0068.2007.00637.xSearch in Google Scholar
Cohen, A. 2014. “Kant on the Ethics of Belief”. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 114, 317–34.10.1111/j.1467-9264.2014.00375.xSearch in Google Scholar
Conant, J. 1992. “The Search for Logically Alien Thought: Descartes, Kant, Frege, and the Tractatus.” Philosophical Topics 20(1), 115–80.10.5840/philtopics19922015Search in Google Scholar
Dancy, J. 1977. “The Logical Conscience.” Analysis 37(2), 81–84.10.1093/oso/9780198865605.003.0002Search in Google Scholar
Engstrom, S. 2009. The Form of Practical Knowledge: A Study of the Categorical Imperative. Cambridge, MA.10.4159/9780674053793Search in Google Scholar
–. 2006. “Understanding and Sensibility.” Inquiry 49(1), 2–25.10.1080/00201740500497225Search in Google Scholar
Ferrier, J. F. 1854. Institutes of Metaphysics: The Theory of Knowing and Being. Edinburgh/London.10.1037/12047-000Search in Google Scholar
Foot, P. 1972. “Morality as a System of Hypothetical Imperatives”. Philosophical Review 81(3), 305–16.10.1093/0199252866.003.0011Search in Google Scholar
Gressis, R. 2010a. “Recent Work on Kantian Maxims I: Established Approaches.” Philosophy Compass 5(3), 216–27.10.1111/j.1747-9991.2009.00254.xSearch in Google Scholar
–. 2010b. “Recent Work on Kantian Maxims II.” Philosophy Compass 5(3), 228–39.10.1111/j.1747-9991.2009.00255.xSearch in Google Scholar
Grüne, S. 2013 “Kant and the Spontaneity of the Understanding.” In Self, World, and Art. Ed. by D. Emundts. Berlin/Boston.10.1515/9783110290813.145Search in Google Scholar
Guyer, P. 1990. “Reason and Reflective Judgment: Kant on the Significance of Systematicity”. Noûs 24(1), 17–43.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199273461.003.0002Search in Google Scholar
–. 1989. “The Unity of Reason: Pure Reason as Practical Reason in Kant’s Early Conception of the Transcendental Dialectic”. The Monist 72(2), 139–67.10.5840/monist198972216Search in Google Scholar
Herman, B. 1985. “The Practice of Moral Judgment”. Journal of Philosophy 82, 414–36.10.2307/2026397Search in Google Scholar
Hume, D. 2000. A Treatise of Human Nature. Ed. by M. J. Norton/D. Fate. Norton.Search in Google Scholar
Kant, I. 2011. Anthropology, History, and Education. Trans. by R. B. Louden/G. Zöller. Reprint edition. Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9780511791925Search in Google Scholar
–. 1997. Critique of Practical Reason. Ed./trans. by M. J. Gregor. The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant. Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9780511809576.004Search in Google Scholar
–. 1998. Critique of Pure Reason. Trans. by P. Guyer/A. W. Wood. The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant. Cambridge.Search in Google Scholar
–. 2001. Critique of the Power of Judgment. Trans. by P. Guyer/E. Matthews. The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant. Cambridge.Search in Google Scholar
–. 2012. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Ed./trans. by M. J. Gregor. The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant. Cambridge.Search in Google Scholar
–. 2018. Kant: Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: And Other Writings. Trans. by A. Wood/G. di Giovanni. 2 edition. Cambridge/New York.Search in Google Scholar
–. 2004. Lectures on Logic. Ed. by J. M. Young. Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9780511810039Search in Google Scholar
–. 2007. “Lectures on Pedagogy (1803).” In Anthropology, History, and Education. Ed. by G. Zöller/R. B. Louden. Trans. by R. B. Louden. The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant. Cambridge, 434–85.Search in Google Scholar
–. 1999. The Metaphysics of Morals (1797). Ed. by M. J. Gregor/A. W. Wood. The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant. Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9780511813306.013Search in Google Scholar
–. 2001. “What Is Orientation in Thinking? (1786).” In Religion and Rational Theology. Trans. by G. Di Giovanni/A. W. Wood. Cambridge, 7–18.Search in Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. 2011. Kant’s Thinker. New York/Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199754823.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
–. 2003. “What Is a Maxim?” Philosophical Topics 31, 215–43.10.5840/philtopics2003311/29Search in Google Scholar
Kleingeld, P. 1998. “Kant on the Unity of Theoretical and Practical Reason”. Review of Metaphysics, 500–28.Search in Google Scholar
Klemme, H. F. 2014. “Is the Categorical Imperative the Highest Principle of Both Pure Practical and Theoretical Reason?” Kantian Review 19(1), 119–26.10.1017/S1369415413000332Search in Google Scholar
Kohl, M. 2015. “Kant on Freedom of Empirical Thought”. Journal of the History of Philosophy 23(2), 301–26.10.1353/hph.2015.0034Search in Google Scholar
Korsgaard, C. M. 1996. The Sources of Normativity. Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9780511554476Search in Google Scholar
Leech, J. 2017. “The Normativity of Kant’s Logical Laws.” History of Philosophy Quarterly 34(4).10.2307/44983526Search in Google Scholar
Lu‐Adler, H. 2017. “Kant and the Normativity of Logic”. European Journal of Philosophy 25(2), 207–30.10.1111/ejop.12242Search in Google Scholar
McCarty, R. R. 2006. “Maxims in Kant’s Practical Philosophy”. Journal of the History of Philosophy 44(1), 65–83.10.1353/hph.2006.0001Search in Google Scholar
McDowell, J. 1978. “Are Moral Requirements Hypothetical Imperatives?” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 52, 13–29.10.1093/aristoteliansupp/52.1.13Search in Google Scholar
McLear, C. forthcoming. “On the Transcendental Freedom of the Intellect.” Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy.10.3998/ergo.12405314.0007.002Search in Google Scholar
Mudd, S. 2016. “Rethinking the Priority of Practical Reason in Kant”. European Journal of Philosophy 24(1), 78–102.10.1111/ejop.12055Search in Google Scholar
Nunez, T. 2019. “Logical Mistakes, Logical Aliens, and the Laws of Kant’s Pure General Logic”. Mind 128, 1149–80.10.1093/mind/fzy027Search in Google Scholar
O’Neill, O. 1990. Constructions of Reason: Explorations of Kant’s Practical Philosophy. Cambridge/New York.10.1017/CBO9781139173773Search in Google Scholar
Pippin, R. B. 1987. “Kant on the Spontaneity of Mind”. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 17(2), 449–75.10.1017/CBO9781139172943.003Search in Google Scholar
Pollok, K. 2017. Kant’s Theory of Normativity: Exploring the Space of Reason. Cambridge/New York.10.1017/9781316412503Search in Google Scholar
Potter, N. 1994. “Maxims in Kant’s Moral Philosophy.” Faculty Publications – Department of Philosophy. University of Nebrasca, Lincoln.10.1007/BF02379849Search in Google Scholar
Railton, P. 2003. “On the Hypothetical and Non-Hypothetical in Reasoning About Belief and Action.” In Facts, Values, and Norms: Essays toward a Morality of Consequence. Cambridge, 293–321.10.1017/CBO9780511613982.011Search in Google Scholar
Sedgwick, S. S. 2012. Hegel’s Critique of Kant: From Dichotomy to Identity. Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199698363.003.0002Search in Google Scholar
–. 2008. Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Cambridge/New York.Search in Google Scholar
Stern, R. 2015. Kantian Ethics: Value, Agency, and Obligation. Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198722298.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Strawson, P. F. 1975. The Bounds of Sense: An Essay on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. London.10.4324/9780429447075Search in Google Scholar
Theunissen, L. Nandi. 2016. “Kant’s Commitment to Metaphysics of Morals.” European Journal of Philosophy 24(1), 103–28.10.1111/ejop.12051Search in Google Scholar
Timmermann, J. 2000. “Kant’s Puzzling Ethics of Maxims.” The Harvard Review of Philosophy 8, 39–52.10.5840/harvardreview2000814Search in Google Scholar
–. 2009. “The Unity of Reason – Kantian Perspectives”. In Spheres of Reason. Ed. by S. Roberson. Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572939.003.0008Search in Google Scholar
Tolley, C. 2008. “Kant and the Normativity of Logic”. In Recht und Frieden in der Philosophie Kants: Akten des X. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses. Ed. by V. Rohden/R. R. Terra/G. A. de Almeida/M. Ruffing, 5–215.10.1515/9783110210347.5.215Search in Google Scholar
–. 2006. “Kant on the Nature of Logical Laws.” Philosophical Topics 34, 371–407.10.5840/philtopics2006341/214Search in Google Scholar
Willaschek, M. 2010. “Die „Spontaneität des Erkenntnisses“. Über die Abhängigkeit der „Transzendentalen Analytik“ von der Auflösung der dritten Antinomie”. In Metaphysik und Kritik: Interpretationen zur „Transzendentalen Dialektik“ der Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Ed. by J. Chotaš/J. Karásek/J. Stolzenberg. Würzburg, 165–84.Search in Google Scholar
–. 2019. Kant on the Sources of Metaphysics: The Dialectic of Pure Reason. New York/Cambridge.10.1017/9781108560856Search in Google Scholar
–. 2021. “The Structure of Normative Space According to Kant”. In The Court of Reason. Proceedings of the 13th International Kant Congress. Ed. by B. Himmelmann/C. Serck-Hanssen. Berlin, 245–68.Search in Google Scholar
Williams, G. 2016. “Kant’s Account of Reason.” Ed. by E. N. Zalta. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/kant-reason/.Search in Google Scholar
Woleński, J. 2004. “The History of Epistemology.” In Handbook of Epistemology. Dordrecht, 3–54.10.1007/978-1-4020-1986-9_1Search in Google Scholar
Wood, A. W. 1991. “Unsociable Sociability: The Anthropological Basis of Kantian Ethics”. Philosophical Topics 19, 325–51.10.5840/philtopics199119122Search in Google Scholar
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston