Abstract
According to Parfit, the best version of Kantian ethics takes as its central principle Kantian Contractualism: the thesis that everyone ought to follow the principles whose universal acceptance everyone could rationally will. This chapter examines that thesis, identifies a class of annoying counterexamples, and suggests that when Kantian Contractualism is modified in response to these examples, the resulting principle is too complex and ad hoc to serve as the 'supreme principle of morality'.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Essays on Derek Parfit's On What Matters |
| Publisher | Wiley-Blackwell |
| Pages | 97-115 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781405196987 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 17 2010 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Arts and Humanities(all)
Keywords
- Derek Parfit's new book, On What Matters and Kantian Contractualism
- Formula of Universally Willable Principles (FUWP)
- FUWP, entailing that every act is wrong
- Kantian contractualism - the supreme principle of morality or not
- Kantian contractualism and discharging the metaphor
- Kantian contractualism revised (KCR)
- Parfit's aim - in identifying best version of Kantian theory of ethics
- Parfit, best version of Kantian ethics - central principle of Kantian Contractualism
- Refutation of rule-consequentialism
- UARC and non-trivial class of 'optimific' principles