Demoralization and Hope: A Psychological Reading of Kant’s Moral Argument

The Monist 106 (1):46-60 (2023)
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Abstract

Kant’s “primacy of the practical” doctrine says that we can form morally justified commitments regarding what exists, even in the absence of sufficient epistemic grounds. In this paper I critically examine three different varieties of Kant’s “moral proof” that can be found in the critical works. My claim is that the third variety—the “moral-psychological argument” based in the need to sustain moral hope and avoid demoralization—has some intriguing advantages over the other two. It starts with a premise that more clearly coheres with Kant’s mature account of moral motivation, and it invokes plausible empirical-psychological theses to motivate a commitment to the full-blown classical deity—the result Kant clearly wanted. From the point of view of its structure, I think this third variety of moral argument also has the most by way of contemporary interest.

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Andrew Chignell
Princeton University

Citations of this work

Kant as a Carpenter of Reason: The Highest Good and Systematic Coherence.Alexander T. Englert - 2024 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 32 (3):496-524.
Hope in the time of climate change. A Kantian perspective.Claudia Blöser - 2024 - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 27 (6):906-927.
The Roles of Kant’s Doctrines of Method.Gabriele Gava & Andrew Chignell - 2023 - Journal of Transcendental Philosophy 4 (2):73-79.

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What Should we Hope?Seniye Tilev - 2022 - Philosophia 50 (5).

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