A Survey on kant's Universal Law: Parfit, Scanlon

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Mirzaei Ghazi, Shervin | 2016

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Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
Language: Farsi
Document No: 48847 (42)
University: Sharif University of Technology
Department: Philosophy of Science
Advisor(s): Azadegan, Ebrahim
Abstract:
In his book “Groundwork for the Metaphysic of Morals ”, Kant tries to pesent a formula for the supreme pinciple of morality. He ends up introducing three formulae that he thinks are all the same and just pesenting one formula In three different ways. After publishing this book, many criticisms were levelled against both his way of argument and the efficacy of his proposed formulae. In this enquiry, by focusing on the first two chapters of Kant’s book, and by considering the universal law formula and the humanity formula, we try to answer these criticisms. In the way, we make use of the new reading of Kant’s view- the critical reading- proposed by Samuel Kerstein, according to which Kant’s way of argument is based on the argument by elemination of rivals. Afterwards, we try to solve other problems that this view face with, by means of Parfit’s modifications of the Universal Law formula. It will be shown that the modified formula is capable of meeting the Kantian requirements for the supreme principle of morality. In the last section, we consider some of the objections to Parfit’s view and his replies to see whether his view is tenable or not
Keywords:
Supreme Principle of Morality ; Humanity Formula ; Universal Law Formula ; Conventionalism ; Consequentalism

No TOC