Date of Award
8-11-2020
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Philosophy
First Advisor
Eric Wilson
Second Advisor
Sebastian Rand
Abstract
Immanuel Kant claims that moral laws must hold for all rational beings universally and necessarily. In this thesis I first investigate Kant’s arguments against moral systems that are based on empirical information which can be found throughout his moral corpus. Then, I show that in Kant’s own moral system what moral laws there are is partially determined by empirical information and that this result presents a problem for the necessity and universality of morality. Further, I argue that contrary to what one might expect, Kant’s criticisms of an empirical foundation for morality do not resolve this issue and that it is unclear how Kant would respond to my critique.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/18602951
Recommended Citation
Payne, Joseph, "Empirical Information and Kant's Moral Laws." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2020.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/18602951
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