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- Title
Kant on Despondent Moral Failure.
- Authors
Moran, Kate
- Abstract
Typically, Kant describes maxims that violate the moral law as engaging in a kind of comparative judgement: the person who makes a false promise judges it best – at least subjectively – to deceive her friend. I argue that this is not the only possible account of moral failure for Kant. In particular, when we examine maxims of so-called despondency (Verzagtheit) we find that some maxims are resistant to comparative judgement. I argue that this is true for at least two reasons: first, the despondent agent has a maxim to avoid suffering at all costs; second, this anxious preoccupation with suffering makes the despondent agent prone to failures associated with the imagination and its role in creating an ideal of happiness.
- Publication
Kantian Review, 2023, Vol 28, Issue 1, p125
- ISSN
1369-4154
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S1369415422000498