Kant's duty of self-knowledge demands that one know one's heart-the quality of one's will in relation to duty. Self-knowledge requires that an agent subvert feelings which fuel self-aggrandizing narratives and increase self-conceit; she must adopt the standpoint of the rational agent constrained by the requirements of reason in order to gain information about her moral constitution. This is not I argue, contra Nancy Sherman, in order to assess the moral goodness of her conduct. Insofar as sound moral practice requires moral self-knowledge and moral self-knowledge requires a theoretical commitment to a conception of the moral self, sound moral agency is for Kant crucially tied to theory. Kant plausibly holds that self-knowledge is a protection against moral confusion and self-deception. I conclude that although his account relies too heavily on the awareness of moral law to explain its connection to moral development, it is insightful and important in Kantian ethics. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.
CITATION STYLE
O’Hagan, E. (2009). Moral self-knowledge in Kantian ethics. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 12(5), 525–537. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-009-9181-7
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