Kant and the Problem of Morality: Rethinking the Contemporary World

179 Pages·2022·2.576 MB·English

by  Luigi Caranti (editor), Alessandro Pinzani (editor)

KANT AND THE PROBLEM OF
MORALITY
This book examines the signifcance of Kant’s moral philosophy in
contemporary philosophical debates. It argues that Kant’s philosophy can
still serve as a guide to navigate the turbulence of a globalized world in
which we are faced by an imprescriptible social reality wherein moral values
and ethical life models are becoming increasingly unstable. The volume
draws on Kantian ethics to discuss various contemporary issues, including
sustainable development, moral enhancement, sexism and racism. It also
tackles general concepts of practical philosophy such as lying, the diferent
kinds of moral duties and the kind of motivation one needs for doing what
we consider the right thing.
Featuring readings by well-known Kant specialists and emerging scholars
with unorthodox approaches to Kant’s philosophy, the volume will be of great
interest to scholars and researchers of philosophy, politics and ethics. It will
also appeal to moral theorists, applied ethicists and environmental theorists.
Luigi Caranti is Professor of Political Philosophy at the Università di
Catania. He focuses on Kant, human rights, peace studies and distributive
justice. Principal investigator of numerous EU-funded research projects, he is
currently coordinating the Marie Curie Rise project “Kant in South America”.
Among his recent publications are The Kantian Federation (2022), (ed. with
D. Celentano) Paradigms of Justice: Redistribution, Recognition and Beyond
(2021) and Kant’s Political Legacy: Human Rights, Peace, Progress (2017).
Alessandro Pinzani is Professor of Ethics and Political Philosophy at the Federal
University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis (Brazil) and, since 2006, a fellow
researcher of CNPq (Brazilian Research Council). His publications include
Jürgen Habermas (2007), An den Wurzeln moderner Demokratie (2009) and
Money, Autonomy, and Citizenship (with W. Leão Rego, 2018).

KANT AND THE PROBLEM
OF MORALITY
Rethinking the Contemporary World
Edited by Luigi Caranti and
Alessandro Pinzani
First published 2023
by Routledge
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© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Luigi Caranti and Alessandro
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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ISBN: 978-0-367-46125-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-28950-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-04312-6 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003043126
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CONTENTS
List of contributors vii
Acknowledgments ix
List of sigla xi
An introduction 1
LUIGI CARANTI AND ALESSANDRO PINZANI
1 On dealing with Kant’s sexism and racism 6
PAULINE KLEINGELD
2 Kant the naturalist 22
ROBERT B. LOUDEN
3 Pleasure and displeasure as moral motivation 37
MARIA BORGES
4 Inefcacy, despair, and diference-making: a
secular application of Kant’s moral argument 47
ANDREW CHIGNELL
5 Lying, deception and dishonesty: Kant and the
contemporary debate on the defnition of lying 73
STEFANO BACIN
6 The duty and the maxims: elements for a morality
and culture of sustainable development 92
ANSELMO APORTONE
v
C ONTENTS
7 Kant as an ante litteram theorist and critic of the
moral enhancement 126
ALBERTO PIRNI
8 Spielraum: narrow and wide duties and their
consequences 138
CLAUDIO LA ROCCA
Index 158
vi
CONTRIBUTORS
Anselmo Aportone is Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University
of Rome “Tor Vergata” and a board member of the Italian Society of
Kantian Studies. The main line of his research is focused on Kant’s phi-
losophy, to which he has devoted several publications, including the vol-
umes Erfahrung, Kategorien und Möglichkeit (Roma 2012), Gestalten
der transzendentalen Einheit (Berlin – New York 2009) and Kant et le
pouvoir réceptif. Recherches sur la conception kantienne de la sensibilité
(Paris 2014).
Stefano Bacin is Associate Professor in History of Philosophy at the Uni-
versity of Milan. He is the author of Il senso dell’etica. Kant e la costru-
zione di una teoria morale (2006), Fichte in Schulpforta (1774–1780).
Kontext und Dokumente (2007) and Kant e l’autonomia della volontà
(2021). He is also co-editor of a three-volume Kant-Lexikon (with Mar-
cus Willaschek, Georg Mohr and Jürgen Stolzenberg; De Gruyter, 2015),
The Emergence of Autonomy in Kant’s Moral Philosophy (with Oliver
Sensen, 2019) and Fichte’s “System of Ethics”: A Critical Guide (with
Owen Ware, 2021).
Maria Borges is Full Professor of Philosophy at the University of Santa Cata-
rina (Brazil). She was Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania
(USA/1999), Humboldt Universität (Germany/2006–7) and Columbia
University (USA/2014). She is researcher of the CNPq/Brazil and Presi-
dent of the Brazilian Kant Society. She is the author of Body and Justice
(2011), Emotion, Reason, and Action in Kant (2019) and many articles,
including “What Can Kant Teach Us About Emotions” (The Journal of
Philosophy) and “Physiology and the Controlling of Afects in Kant’s
Philosophy” (Kantian Review). Her philosophical interests are Kant, eth-
ics, theory of emotions and feminist philosophy.
Andrew Chignell is Laurence S. Rockefeller Professor in the University
Center for Human Values at Princeton University, with appointments
in the departments of philosophy and religion. His research focuses on
vii
C ONTRIBUTORS
Kant and early modern philosophy, philosophy of religion, the ethics of
belief and moral psychology. He is the director of the Princeton Project
in Philosophy and Religion and currently serves as the President of the
North American Kant Society.
Pauline Kleingeld is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Gronin-
gen, the Netherlands. Her academic interests are in ethics and political
philosophy, with an emphasis on Kantianism and the work of Immanuel
Kant. She is the author of Kant and Cosmopolitanism: The Philosophi-
cal Ideal of World Citizenship (2012) and Fortschritt und Vernunft: Zur
Geschichtsphilosophie Kants (1995). She has also edited three volumes
with translations of texts by Immanuel Kant and Gottfried Achenwall.
Claudio La Rocca is Professor of Theoretical Philosophy and Philosophy of
Mind at the University of Genoa. His research interests focus on Italian
philosophy of the 20th century, phenomenology, hermeneutics, philoso-
phy of mind and in particular on the philosophy of Kant, on which he
has published several volumes and numerous essays in Italian, English,
French, Spanish and German. From 2006 to May 2016, he was President
of the Società Italiana di Studi Kantiani. He is Editor-in-Chief of the jour-
nal Studi kantiani.
Robert B. Louden is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University
of Southern Maine, USA. His publications include Johann Bernhard Base-
dow and the Transformation of Modern Education (2021), Anthropol-
ogy from a Kantian Point of View (2021), Kant’s Human Being (2011),
The World We Want (2007), Kant’s Impure Ethics (2000) and Morality
and Moral Theory (1992). A former president of the North American
Kant Society (NAKS), Louden is also co-editor and translator of two vol-
umes in The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant.
Alberto Pirni is Associate Professor in Moral Philosophy at the Sant’Anna
School of Advanced Studies (Pisa), where he coordinates the research
area in public ethics. He is also Responsible Director of the international
journal Lexicon of Public Ethics. His publications include Il regno dei fni
in Kant (il melangolo, 2000); Kant flosofo della comunità (ETS 2006);
(ed. by) Kant y las declinaciones de la armonía, “Con-Textos Kantianos”,
2, 2015; “The Place of Sociality. Models of Intersubjectivity According
to Kant”, in A. Faggion, A. Pinzani, N. Sanchez Madrid (eds.); Kant and
Social Philosophy (2016); and “Kant e la flosofa cosmopolitica”, in B.
Henry, A. Loretoni, A. Pirni, M. Solinas (eds.), Filosofa politica (2020).
viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Does Kant still have something to say to us after more than 200 years from
the publication of his major works (the three Critiques, the Groundwork,
the Metaphysics of Morals, the political writings and those on the philoso-
phy of history)? Can his thinking still serve as a guide to navigate the tur-
bulence of a globalized world, of an imprescriptible social reality in which
moral values and ethical life models have lost their stability, while sciences –
even the most exact ones – are painfully aware of the precarity of their
foundations, and the borders between domestic and international issues are
increasingly blurred?
The editors of these volumes are convinced that these questions are to
be answered positively and that Kant remains a source of inspiration for
dealing with the latest developments in areas that include ethics, politics
and the theory of knowledge. Guided by this belief, we have invited Kant
specialists from diferent backgrounds to discuss contemporary epistemo-
logical, moral and political issues from a Kantian perspective. Some have
chosen to stay close to Kant’s texts, and others have used his work merely
as a source of inspiration; all of them, we believe, have shown how his
critical philosophy retains a capacity for interpreting reality in salient ways
and for ofering solutions to our problems – be they new ones, which Kant
himself could not foresee, or old ones, which have haunted humankind
from its beginning.
Editing these volumes was a journey that began organically some years
ago, frst through personal conversations between us, then through com-
mon projects. The decisive pivot occurred during the 8th Multilateral
Kant Congress, held in Catania October 11–13, 2018, which was in turn
made possible by a grant from the European Commission that enabled
a four-year-long structured cooperation between Kant scholars from
Europe and South America (Marie Curie RISE n.777786 “Kant in South
America”). The present book constitutes the main scientifc output of that
project. Its articulation in three volumes, devoted separately to knowl-
edge, ethics and politics, refects the three scientifc work packages into
ix