Deriving Positive Duties from Kant's Formula of Universal Law

History of Philosophy Quarterly 40 (3):191-201 (2023)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

According to the objection from positive duties, Kant's Formula of Universal Law is flawed because it cannot be used to derive any affirmative moral requirements. This paper offers a response to that objection and proposes a novel way to derive positive duties from Kant's formula. The Formula of Universal Law yields positive duties to adopt our own perfection and others’ happiness as ends because we could not rationally fail to will those ends as universal ends.

Other Versions

No versions found

Analytics

Added to PP
2023-04-01

Downloads
749 (#37,485)

6 months
239 (#13,642)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Guus Duindam
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Citations of this work

The Matter and Form of Kant’s Moral Law.Zachary Biondi - 2024 - Kantian Review 29 (4):527-549.
On the Singularity of the Categorical Imperative.Guus Duindam - 2023 - Southwest Philosophy Review 39 (1):165-173.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Kant’s Ethical Thought.Allen W. Wood - 1999 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
The Practice of Moral Judgment.Barbara Herman - 1985 - Journal of Philosophy 82 (8):414.
Moral literacy.Barbara Herman - 2007 - New York: Harvard University Press.
Moral dilemmas and consistency.Ruth Barcan Marcus - 1980 - Journal of Philosophy 77 (3):121-136.

View all 19 references / Add more references