Kant’s Philosophy of Religion and the Challenges of Moral Commitment

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

University of Dartmouth, Department of Religion

Abstract

Kant believes that the concepts of a just and compassionate God and the life beyond death spring from our rational need to unite happiness with virtue. But since Kant had banished happiness from any place in moral reasoning, his philosophy of religion have been deemed as not merely discontinuous with his ethics but radically opposed to it. This article tries to argue against this apparent inconsistency and show that Kant’s philosophy of religion is in fact based firmly on his ethical reasoning.

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References

Baier, Kurt. 1958. The Moral Point of View. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Green, Ronald M. 1991. “The First Formulation of the Categorical Imperative as Literally a ‘Legislative’ Metaphor.” History of Philosophy Quarterly 8(2): 163-179.
Kant, Immanuel. 1785/1996. “Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals.” In Immanuel Kant Practical Philosophy, translated and edited by Mary J. Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
—————. 1787/1929. Critique of Pure Reason. Translated by Norman Kemp Smith. New York, Toronto: Macmillan and St. Martin’s Press.
—————.1788/1996. “Critique of Practical Reason.” In Immanuel Kant Practical Philosophy, translated and edited by Mary J. Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
—————.1793/1996. “Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason.” In Religion and Rational Theology, translated by George di Giovanni. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mavrodes, George I. 1986. “Religion and the Queerness of Morality.” In Rationality, Religious Belief, and Moral Commitment, edited by Robert Audi and William J. Wainwright, 213-226. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Rawls, John. 1971. “The Kantian Interpretation.” In A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Taylor, Robert. 2011. Reconstructing Rawls: The Kantian Foundations of Justice as Fairness. Pennsylvania State University Press.

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