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A New Kantian Response to Maxim-Fiddling

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2011

Andrew Sneddon
Andrew Sneddon*
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa
*
Email: asneddon@uottawa.ca
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Abstract

There has long been a suspicion that Kant's test for the universalizability of maxims can be easily subverted: instead of risking failing the test, design your maxim for any action whatsoever in a manner guaranteed to pass. This is the problem of maxim-fiddling. The present discussion of this problem has two theses:

  1. 1] That extant approaches to maxim-fiddling are not satisfactory;

  2. 2] That a satisfactory response to maxim-fiddling can be articulated using Kantian resources, especially the first two formulations of the categorical imperative.

This approach to maxim-fiddling draws our attention to a Kantian notion of an offence against morality itself that has largely been overlooked.

Type
Articles
Information
Kantian Review , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , 08 March 2011 , pp. 67 - 88
Copyright
copyright © Kantian Review 2011

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