University of Kansas, Fall 2002
Philosophy 672: History of Ethics
Ben Eggleston
Test—Kant
Please answer the following questions in the time allotted, without the use
of books, notes, or other people. The last question is a bonus question, not
among the questions given to you in advance.
- (15 points:) Kant aims, in the Groundwork, to articulate and
establish a synthetic principle that is knowable a priori. First, what
does it mean for a principle to be synthetic rather than analytic, and why
does Kant want to establish a principle that is synthetic rather than analytic
(7 points)? Second, what does is mean for a principle to be knowable a
priori rather than a posteriori, and why does Kant insist that
whatever is established be established a priori rather than a posteriori (8 points)?
- (10 points): Kant thinks that common-sense morality is neither seriously
flawed nor entirely adequate as it stands. In what way does Kant approve of
common-sense morality (e.g., in what respect does he think it’s all right, or
on the right track), and yet what important role does he think there is for
moral philosophy to serve?
- (10 points:) What is the connection between the concept of a good will
and the concept of duty such that an analysis of the latter will
clarify the meaning of the former?
- (10 points:) What is meant by saying that imperatives, as Kant conceives
of them, are (1) appropriate only for “imperfectly rational” wills and (2)
objectively valid? (To answer the second part of this question you’ll need to
say how imperatives, as Kant conceives of them, are different from
imperatives, as (e.g.) a grammarian would conceive of them.)
- (15 points:) What are the two kinds of contradiction that Kant says can
arise in connection with the categorical imperative, and what do these two
different kinds of contradiction have to do with the two different kinds of
duties that Kant mentions?
- (10 points:) How might the categorical imperative be made to seem, by
clever formulations of agents’ maxims, to be more permissive than Kant
presumably intended?
- (10 points:) How might the categorical imperative be made to seem, by
consideration of suitably chosen examples, to be unreasonably strict?
- (10 points:) What would Kant say if someone said the following? “Kant’s
theory is flawed because I was thinking about performing a certain action, and
when I tested it against one formulation of the categorical imperative, it
came out o.k., but when I tested it against another formulation, it was
prohibited.”
- (10 points:) What, according to Hill, is the usual understanding of the
phrase ‘humanity in a person’ (as it occurs in one of Kant’s formulations of
the categorical imperative), and what understanding does Hill propose?
- What does Kant try to accomplish in the third section of the Groundwork?
You can get up to 5 points by answering this question.