Post-Kantian European Philosophy Seminar (Tuesday - Week 2, TT24)

Abstract: Commentators have often noted that there is something ‘divine’ about the Kantian moral agent but have less often asked how Kant conceives of actual divine agency. In this talk I will reconstruct the sense in which Kant thinks that God is morally good, and then appeal to that account to develop comparisons and contrasts between Kantian morality in the ‘finite case’ (i.e. the human case) and the ‘infinite case’ (i.e. the divine case). I will then explore the philosophical upshots of the theological side of Kantian morality by using this theological lens to shed light on difficulties of some aspects of Korsgaard’s practical philosophy, as well as Hegelian Sittlichkeit.

Post-Kantian European Philosophy Seminar Convenors: Joseph Schear, Manuel Dries, Kate Kirkpatrick and Mark Wrathall