The Analytic Proposition Underlying Kantian Hypothetical Imperatives
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Alexandra Newton
Abstract:
Kant maintains that it is easy to see how hypothetical imperatives are possible, because the following proposition is analytic: “Whoever wills the end also wills (in so far as reason has decisive influence on his actions) the indispensably necessary means to it that is within his control” (GMS, AA 04: 417). I distinguish three readings of the analytic proposition, which correspond to three ways of understanding how it reveals hypothetical imperatives to be possible. The first reads it as a theoretical proposition about constitutive features of an ideal agent. I argue that this fails to do justice to the first-personal character of the analytic proposition, as a proposition about the general practical concept ‘I will’ (or more generally, ‘I intend’). The second reading extracts actual imperatives from the concept of ‘willing an end’ by means of analysis. Against this, I argue that the derivation of an imperative from an act of willing an end is an act of synthesis, and that analysis of the concept of ‘my willing an end’ merely yields the possibility of hypothetical imperatives.
© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Abhandlungen
- Kant on the Necessity of Causal Relations
- The Normativity of Prudence
- The Analytic Proposition Underlying Kantian Hypothetical Imperatives
- Geht die Physikotheologie der Ethikotheologie vorher? Ein Blick auf Kants Prioritätsthese
- Berichte und Diskussionen
- What does the Transcendental Deduction prove, and when does it prove it? Henry Allison on Kant’s Transcendental Deduction
- Bibliographie
- Kant-Bibliographie 2015
- Buchbesprechungen
- Werner Flach. Kant zu Geschichte, Kultur und Recht. Hrsg. von Wolfgang Bock. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2015. 301 Seiten. ISBN 978-3-428-13368-0.
- Gabriel Rivero: Zur Bedeutung des Begriffs Ontologie bei Kant. Eine entwicklungsgeschichtliche Untersuchung. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2014, 247 Seiten. ISBN 978-3-11-034180-5.
- Scott R. Stroud: Kant and the Promise of Rhetoric. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2014. x, 274 pp. ISBN: 978-0-271-06419-2.
- Antonino Falduto: The Faculties of the Human Mind and the Case of Moral Feeling in Kant’s Philosophy. Kantstudien-Ergänzungshefte Bd. 177. Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2014. XV und 266 Seiten. ISBN 978-3-11-035002-9.
- Jahresinhalt Kant-Studien Jg. 108, 2017
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Abhandlungen
- Kant on the Necessity of Causal Relations
- The Normativity of Prudence
- The Analytic Proposition Underlying Kantian Hypothetical Imperatives
- Geht die Physikotheologie der Ethikotheologie vorher? Ein Blick auf Kants Prioritätsthese
- Berichte und Diskussionen
- What does the Transcendental Deduction prove, and when does it prove it? Henry Allison on Kant’s Transcendental Deduction
- Bibliographie
- Kant-Bibliographie 2015
- Buchbesprechungen
- Werner Flach. Kant zu Geschichte, Kultur und Recht. Hrsg. von Wolfgang Bock. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2015. 301 Seiten. ISBN 978-3-428-13368-0.
- Gabriel Rivero: Zur Bedeutung des Begriffs Ontologie bei Kant. Eine entwicklungsgeschichtliche Untersuchung. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2014, 247 Seiten. ISBN 978-3-11-034180-5.
- Scott R. Stroud: Kant and the Promise of Rhetoric. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2014. x, 274 pp. ISBN: 978-0-271-06419-2.
- Antonino Falduto: The Faculties of the Human Mind and the Case of Moral Feeling in Kant’s Philosophy. Kantstudien-Ergänzungshefte Bd. 177. Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2014. XV und 266 Seiten. ISBN 978-3-11-035002-9.
- Jahresinhalt Kant-Studien Jg. 108, 2017
