SOCCIO ARCHETYPES OF WISDOM
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CHAPTER 11
THE UNIVERSALIST: IMMANUEL KANT
Chapter 11 Key Concepts
The word moral comes from the Latin moralis, meaning
custom, manner, or conduct, and refers to what people
consider good or bad, right or wrong. There are two
contrasting words: nonmoral (amoral) and immoral. The
Immanuel Kant fully understood the serious implications
of the scandal in philosophy that resulted from the failure
of rationalism and empiricism to adequately account for
Kant developed a special kind of analysis called a critique
Critical philosophy attempts to discover whether a priori
knowledge and metaphysics are possible. Critical philosophy
SOCCIO ARCHETYPES OF WISDOM
Kant claimed that knowledge is triggered by the
interaction between actual experience and faculties of
judgment called categories of understanding.
According to Kant, we know only reality-as-it-is-
According to Kant, transcendental ideas bridge the gap
between the phenomenal and noumenal worlds.
Transcendental ideas are triggered by experience; they
Kant distinguished between practical reason and
theoretical reason. Theoretical reason is confined to the
Practical reason reveals a moral dimension based on our
consciousness of necessary and universal moral laws, which
Kant calls rules or maxims. Moral rules cannot be discovered
Moral duty does not serve our desires and preferences, it
overpowers them. Moral duty must be confined to
considerations of the form: What are the universal obligations
of all persons in similar circumstances? The moral quality of
SOCCIO ARCHETYPES OF WISDOM
Kant characterized moral duty as acting on the principle
of acting on principle and identified the universal command
As rational creatures capable of goodness, we belong to
what Kant called the kingdom of ends. Because we can reason
we have intrinsic worth, we are ends-in-ourselves, not mere
John Rawls was an influential modern philosopher who
constructed a theory of justice designed to overcome the
In a feminist analysis of Rawls, Stanford University
professor Susan Okin argues that overlooked gender bias
remains present in both the language and choice of examples
Chapter 11 Teaching Tips
1. Discuss the Philosophical Query on page 311. Have the
class consider the consequences of a completely amoral
2. Introduce the scandal in philosophy (pages 313 315) in
a general way as a way of generating empathy for Kant s
epistemological critique. Point out that at least part of the
3. The Philosophical Query on page 324 works well as a
4. Make sure that students understand why Kant refuses to
base his moral philosophy on matters of fact. Explain why he
thought that ought cannot be derived from is. Scientific
5. Students seem to be fascinated with sociopaths. Take
6. Related to tip 5, discuss the Philosophical Query on page
7. Have the class describe life if we all treated each other as
ends only. What obvious differences would there be in
society? In our families and relationships? In school? What
subtle differences might we discover?
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8. In my experience, students are intrigued by the veil of
ignorance. Modify tip 7 by taking class time to conduct a
9. Ask the class to consider a possibly fatal flaw in the sorts
of justice reasoning Rawls and Okin attempt: Do we really
truly believe in the possibility of impersonal, impartial
10. Put Susan Faludi s Backlash and Christina Hoff Sommers s
Who Stole Feminism? on reserve in the library and have
11. Have the class discuss the For Deeper Consideration on
page 315 by considering the possibility that moral evaluations
12. Have students compile and compare variants of the