Browsing by Subject "Universalizability tests"

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    On the Expressive Limits of Kant’s Universalizability Tests
    (De Gruyter, 2021) Kahn, Samuel; Philosophy, School of Liberal Arts
    My goal in this piece is to show that there is a problem lurking in the shadows of recent attempts to derive positive duties from Kant’s so-called universalizability tests and, further, to show that the most obvious way of fixing these attempts renders them unable to fulfill their function. I shall begin by motivating and explaining such an attempt.
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    The Problem with Using a Maxim Permissibility Test to Derive Obligations
    (Linköping University Electronic Press, 2022-06-23) Kahn, Samuel; Philosophy, School of Liberal Arts
    The purpose of this paper is to show that, if Kant’s universalization formulations of the Categorical Imperative are our only standards for judging right from wrong and permissible from impermissible, then we have no obligations. I shall do this by examining five different views of how obligations can be derived from the universalization formulations and arguing that each one fails. I shall argue that the first view rests on a misunderstanding of the universalization formulations; the second on a misunderstanding of the concept of an obligation; the third on a misunderstanding of the concept of a maxim; the fourth on a misunderstanding of the limits of action description; and the fifth on a misunderstanding of the universalization formulations again.