Throughout his corpus, Kant repeatedly and resolutely denies that there is a duty to promote one’s own happiness, and most present-day Kantians seem to agree with him. In Kant, Ought Implies Can, the Principle of Alternate Possibilities, and Happiness, Samuel Kahn argues that this denial rests on two main ideas: (1) a conception of duty that makes the principle of ought implies can (OIC) and the principle of alternate possibilities (PAP) analytic, and (2) the claim that humans necessarily promote their own happiness. This book defends OIC and PAP but nonetheless attacks the second idea, and it supplements this attack with two additional arguments—an interpersonal one and an intrapersonal one—for the claim that a modern day Kantian ethics should affirm a duty to promote one’s own happiness.

A systematic guide to Kant's ethical work and the debates surrounding it, accessible to students and specialists alike.

The main body of this Element, about Kant's theory of conscience, is divided into two sections. The first focuses on exegesis of Kant's ethics. One of the overarching theses of this section of the Element is that, although many of Kant's claims about conscience are prima facie inconsistent, a close examination of context generally can dissolve apparent contradictions. The second section of the Element focuses on philosophical issues in Kantian ethics. One of the overarching theses of this section of the Element is that many positions traditionally associated with Kantian ethics, including the denial of moral luck, the nonaccidental rightness condition, and the guise of the objectively good, are at variance with Kant's ethics.

Explores Kant's philosophy of religion and morality through his Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason.

As a broad critique and invitation to reframe the study of ethics, Problem-Based Ethics welcomes scholars and students across disciplines to engage with ethics as a way to explore pervasive questions of our society and human existence. Stepping back from the intricacies of theory and from heated political debates, Samuel Kahn’s synthesis of the study of ethics asks readers to consider even the most contentious of topics like abortion, capital punishment, and euthanasia from their most basic questions. This approach reveals opportunities for more nuanced and evolving ethical positions. It also promotes a culture of civility too often destroyed in politicized debates in scholarly and popular forums. The book covers standard issues in metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics, such as the objectivism/subjectivism debate, the consequentialism/deontology/virtue ethics/ethics of care debate, and the abortion debate. It also introduces more advanced issues such as distributive justice and environmental ethics, as well as less standard questions often of interest to laypeople and students, such as whether crime can be eliminated.

The idea of a final end of human conduct – the highest good – plays an important role in Kant’s philosophy. Unlike his predecessors Kant defines the highest good as a combination of two heterogeneous elements, namely virtue and happiness. This conception lies at the centre of some of the most influential Kantian doctrines such as his famous “moral argument” for the rationality of faith, his conception of the unity of reason and his views concerning the final end of nature as well as the historical progress of mankind. To be sure, the different treatments of the highest good in Kant’s work have led to a great deal of discussion among his readers. Besides Kant’s arguments for moral faith, recent debate has focused on the place of the highest good within Kant’s moral theory, on the antinomy of pure practical reason, and on the idea of the primacy of practical reason. This collection of new essays attempts to re-evaluate Kant’s doctrine of the highest good and to determine its relevance for contemporary philosophy.