Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ph5wq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T08:57:15.742Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Making the Ideal Real: Publicity and Morality in Kant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2016

Melissa Zinkin*
Affiliation:
Binghamton University

Abstract

This article discusses the concept of publicity in Kant’s moral philosophy. Insofar as the concepts of ‘public’ and ‘private’ can describe our relations with others, they can be considered to be moral concepts. I argue that we can find in Kant a moral duty not to keep our maxims of action private, or secret. Whereas Korsgaard argues that sometimes in the face of evil it is permissible to sidestep the moral law, I argue that it is rather through publicity that we can deal with evil in the non-ideal world. Moreover, by being open with our maxims, moral progress is possible.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© Kantian Review 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Flikschuh, Katrin (2008) ‘Sidestepping Morality: Korsgaard on Kant’s No-Right to Revolution’. Jahrbuch für Recht und Ethik, 1, 127145.Google Scholar
Flikschuh, Katrin (2009) ‘Kant’s Kingdom of Ends: Metaphysical, not Political’. In Jens Timmerman (ed.), Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: A Critical Guide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 119139.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen (1990) Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Herman, Barbara (1997) ‘A Cosmopolitan Kingdom of Ends’. In A. Reath, B. Herman and C. Korsgaard (eds), Reclaiming the History of Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 187213.Google Scholar
Herman, Barbara (1993) ‘Mutual Aid and Respect for Persons’. In The Practice of Moral Judgment (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), 4573.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1900–) Gesammelte Schriften Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1996) Practical Philosophy. Trans. and ed. Mary J. Gregor. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1997) Lectures on Ethics. Ed. Peter Heath and J. B. Schneewind. Trans. Peter Heath. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel (1998) Critique of Pure Reason. Trans. and ed. Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Korsgaard, Christine (1986) ‘The Right to Lie: Kant on Dealing with Evil’. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 15(4), 325349.Google Scholar
Korsgaard, Christine (1996) Creating the Kingdom of Ends. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Korsgaard, Christine (1997) ‘Taking the Law into our own Hands: Kant on the Right to Revolution’. In Andrews Reath (ed.), Reclaiming the History of Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 297328.Google Scholar
Langton, Rae (1992) ‘Duty and Desolation’. Philosophy, 67(262), 481505.Google Scholar
Laursen, J. C. (1986) ‘The Subversive Kant: The Vocabulary of “Public” and “Publicity”’. Political Theory, 14(4), 584603.Google Scholar
Mahon, James Edwin (2003) ‘Kant on Lies, Candor and Reticence’. Kantian Review, 7, 102133.Google Scholar
Mahon, James Edwin (2006) ‘Kant and Maria von Herbert: Reticence vs. Deception’. Philosophy, 81(3), 417444.Google Scholar
Mohr, Richard (1992) Gay Ideas: Outing and Other Controversies. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
O’Neill, Onora (1986) ‘The Public Use of Reason’. Political Theory, 14(4), 523551.Google Scholar
Pallikkathayal, Jappa (2010) ‘Rethinking the Formula of Humanity’. Ethics, 121(1), 116147.Google Scholar
Pollitt, Katha (1993) ‘Review of Katie Roiphe, The Morning After: Fear, Sex and Feminism’. New Yorker, 69(32), 220224.Google Scholar
Rawls, John (1971) A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, John (1993) Political Liberalism. NewYork: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Sensen, Oliver (2009) ‘Kant’s Conception of Human Dignity’. Kant-Studien, 100(3), 309331.Google Scholar
Shell, Susan Meld (1980) The Rights of Reason: A Study of Kant’s Philosophy and Politics. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar