The Change of Heart, Moral Character and Moral Reform

Bibliographic Data

ID20510330
AuthorsConrad Damstra (John Brown University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume28
Issue4
Pages555-574
Publication date2023-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueKantian Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-4154 • E-ISSN: 2044-2394
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1369415423000304
OpenAlexW4388617890
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited36

I examine Kant’s claim in part one of Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason that moral reform requires both a ‘change of heart’ and gradual reformation of one’s sense ( R, 6: 47). I argue that Kant’s conception of moral reform is neither fundamentally obscure nor is it as vulnerable to serious objections as several commentators have suggested. I defend Kant by explaining how he can maintain both that we can choose our moral disposition via an intelligible choice and that we become good through a continuous struggle. I then provide an interpretation of how moral reform occurs in the phenomenal realm

Disposition · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Moral character · Political science · Realm · Law · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Theology and Philosophy of Evil · War, Ethics, and Justification

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access