Korsgaard's Kantian Arguments for the Value of Humanity

In The Sources of Normativity, Christine Korsgaard affirms that Enlightenment morality is true: humanity is valuable. To many of us few claims seem more obvious. Yet Enlightenment thinkers such as Kant do not limit themselves to affirming that humanity is valuable. They appeal to reason in an effort to establish it. They try to show that, in some sense, we are rationally compelled to recognize the value of humanity. Korsgaard joins in this effort. She champions the claim that unless we take humanity to be valuable, we condemn ourselves to complete practical skepticism, i.e., to the view that we have no reason to do anything at all. Korsgaard discusses two arguments that, she believes, support this claim. The first she attributes directly to Kant in a series of influential papers on his ethics. The second argument, which she calls a ‘fancy new model’ of the first, she constructs under her own name in The Sources of Normativity. I will defend the view that neither of these arguments succeeds. In doing so, I will not be trying to show that we are mistaken in believing humanity to be valuable

Appeal · Argument (complex analysis · Categorical imperative · Enlightenment · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Humanity · Morality · Political science · Skepticism · Theology · Value (mathematics · Computer Science · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Medicine · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Law · Philosophy

• Moral Understanding and Morally Worthy Action

  Alice Hills, Alison Hills•The beloved self•2010

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• Modest Vindication

  Alice Hills, Alison Hills•The beloved self•2010

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• Disagreement

  Alice Hills, Alison Hills•The beloved self•2010

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• Moral Testimony and Moral Disagreement

  Alice Hills, Alison Hills•The beloved self•2010

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• The Holy Grail of Moral Philosophy

  Alice Hills, Alison Hills•The beloved self•2010

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• Virtue Egoism

  Alice Hills, Alison Hills•The beloved self•2010

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• Ambitious Vindication

  Alice Hills, Alison Hills•The beloved self•2010

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• Kantian Egoism

  Alice Hills, Alison Hills•The beloved self•2010

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• Dignity and Preservation of Personhood

  Samuel J Kerstein•Humiliation, Degradation,…•2011

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• Epistemic Rationality

  Alice Hills, Alison Hills•The beloved self•2010

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• Standard Egoism

  Alice Hills, Alison Hills•The beloved self•2010

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• Against Egoism

  Alice Hills, Alison Hills•The beloved self•2010

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• Conclusion

  Alice Hills, Alison Hills•The beloved self•2010

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• Korsgaard's Arguments for the Value of Humanity

  Michael Bukoski•The Philosophical Review•2018

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• The Value of Humanity and Kant's Conception of Evil

  Matthew Caswell•Journal of the history of…•2006

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• The Beloved Self

  Alice Hills, Alison Hills•The beloved self•2010

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• Kant's Formula of the End in Itself

  Open Access•Lara Denis•Philosophy Compass•2007

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• Rational Nature as an End‐In‐Itself

  David Cummiskey•Kantian consequentialism•1996

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• Immanuel Kant Critique of Practical Reason

  Open Access•Immanuel Kant, Andrews Reath et al.•Kant•1997

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• Creating the Kingdom of Ends

  Open Access•Christine M Korsgaard•Creating the Kingdom of Ends•1996

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• The Sources of Normativity

  Open Access•Christine M Korsgaard, Onora O’neill et al.•Sources of Normativity•1996

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• Kant's Formula of Humanity

  Christine M Korsgaard•Kant-Studien•1986

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• Two Distinctions in Goodness

  Christine M Korsgaard•The Philosophical Review•1983

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