The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast Ep. 372: Kant's Ethics Lectures (Part One)
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Jul 28, 2025 Dive into Kant's intriguing 1785 ethics lectures that reveal deeper insights into ethical motivation. Discover how rationality can spark genuine moral feelings and the balance between self-respect and societal duties. Explore the conflicts between Kant's anti-consequentialism and Aristotle’s virtue ethics. The discussion also contrasts Kant with Hume, addressing moral psychology and the essence of true freedom. With connections to modern culture, even Harry Potter serves as a contemporary lens for understanding Kantian morality.
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Duties to Self and Honor
- Kant emphasizes duties to oneself as crucial for moral agency and respecting humanity within oneself.
- He links morality and honor, rather than love, and stresses cultivating respect and abhorrence toward vice.
Discipline Over Inclinations
- Kant's ethics focus on disciplining and taming inclinations, seeing humans as fallen and morally requiring regulation of desires.
- Moral development is about preventing vice rather than striving for positive excellence, contrasting Aristotle's virtue ethics.
Norms vs Feelings in Morality
- Kant separates the source of moral norms (understanding) from the motivation to act (moral feeling).
- Moral feeling alone cannot ground obligation, but it provides the necessary impulse for moral action.
