The glowing screen before me and the moral law within me: a Kantian duty against screen overexposure

Stefano Lo Re

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This paper establishes a Kantian duty against screen overexposure. After defining screen exposure, I adopt a Kantian approach to its morality on the ground that Kant’s notion of duties to oneself easily captures wrongdoing in absence of harm or wrong to others. Then, I draw specifically on Kant’s ‘duties to oneself as an animal being’ to introduce a duty of self-government. This duty is based on the negative causal impact of the activities it regulates on a human being’s mental and physical powers, and, ultimately, on the moral employment of these powers. After doing so, I argue that the duty against screen overexposure is an instance of the duty of self-government. Finally, I consider some objections.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages21
JournalRes Publica
VolumeFirst Online
Early online date20 Dec 2021
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 20 Dec 2021

Keywords

  • Kant
  • Duties to oneself
  • Screen addiction
  • Internet addiction

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