Why Some Things Must Remain Unknown: Kant on Faith, Moral Motivation, and the Highest Good

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

In the final section of the Dialectic of the Critique of Practical Reason Kant raises the question of how the cognitive powers of human beings relate to their vocation of realizing the highest good. In particular, should we have been given knowledge of immortality and of God’s existence? Nature was right to withhold knowledge of these objects: metaphysical knowledge of a just God and immortality would eliminate friction between the moral law and inclination, undermine human freedom, respect for the moral law, and autonomy, and consequently the possibility of moral goodness, the foundational constituent of the highest good. Theoretical certainty of the existence of God and immortality would have been just as fatal for the possibility of promoting the highest good as conclusive proof of their non-existence. The purpose of this chapter is to determine whether Kant’s controversial arguments can be made to work.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAristotle and Kant on the Highest Good
EditorsJoachim Aufderheide, Ralf Bader
Place of PublicationOxford
PublisherOxford University Press
ISBN (Print)9780198714019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Keywords

  • Kant
  • hiddenness of God
  • highest good
  • postulates
  • moral faith

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Why Some Things Must Remain Unknown: Kant on Faith, Moral Motivation, and the Highest Good'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this