Abstract

How can one bring about virtuous behaviour? This question is all the more pressing for Kant as his definition of the virtuous act in terms of autonomy sets up a particularproblem. Indeed, it seems that any effort to provoke an act of autonomy is doomed: should it „succeed”, the act it provoked would no longer be autonomous but rather determined by something external. A possible solution to this logical conundrum is fleetingly adumbrated by Kant in §48 of the Metaphysics of Morals. In this section, the parerga of virtue are credited with both leading to, and belonging to, virtue. Taken in conjunctionwith what the Critique of Judgement teaches us concerning the role of parerga, this suggests an indirect efficacy which is perhaps precisely that which is needed to provoke virtuous behaviour. Such at least is the hypothesis this paper develops