Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Kant's “Metaphysics of Permanent Rupture”: Radical Evil and the Unity of Reason
- 2 Kantian Moral Pessimism
- 3 Kant, the Bible, and the Recovery from Radical Evil
- 4 Kant's Moral Excluded Middle
- 5 Evil Everywhere: The Ordinariness of Kantian Radical Evil
- 6 An Alternative Proof of the Universal Propensity to Evil
- 7 Kant and the Intelligibility of Evil
- 8 Social Dimensions of Kant's Conception of Radical Evil
- 9 Kant, Radical Evil, and Crimes against Humanity
- 10 Unforgivable Sins? Revolution and Reconciliation in Kant
- Select bibliography
- Index
2 - Kantian Moral Pessimism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Kant's “Metaphysics of Permanent Rupture”: Radical Evil and the Unity of Reason
- 2 Kantian Moral Pessimism
- 3 Kant, the Bible, and the Recovery from Radical Evil
- 4 Kant's Moral Excluded Middle
- 5 Evil Everywhere: The Ordinariness of Kantian Radical Evil
- 6 An Alternative Proof of the Universal Propensity to Evil
- 7 Kant and the Intelligibility of Evil
- 8 Social Dimensions of Kant's Conception of Radical Evil
- 9 Kant, Radical Evil, and Crimes against Humanity
- 10 Unforgivable Sins? Revolution and Reconciliation in Kant
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
Those valiant men mistook their enemy … They sent forth wisdom against folly instead of summoning it against malice.
Kant, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (6: 57)The human being is by nature evil.
Kant, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (6: 32)Whether people are evil is not a popular topic among contemporary moral theorists. Nonetheless, assumptions about whether humans are generally good or evil play widespread and unnoticed roles in moral theorizing. In this paper, I show some of the ways that moral optimism – the view that humans are generally good – affects contemporary ethical theory. I start with recent work by Gilbert Harman and John Doris, in which empirical psychology plays important roles in ethical reflection. Wherever empirical work is taken to have normative implications, the issue of whether people are fundamentally good contributes to thinking about how empirical studies relate to normative conclusions. I then turn to Barbara Herman's work to show how optimism informs discussions of central issues in contemporary moral philosophy. I end with Kant's “moral pessimism.”
Throughout, I primarily contrast moral optimism with moral pessimism. Moral optimists need believe neither that people are omniscient nor that they always do the best thing, but only that the main failings of most people are not primarily moral, but have to do with ignorance or incompetence or social conditions or (non-culpable) negligence or lack of self-control.
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- Kant's Anatomy of Evil , pp. 33 - 56Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
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