The Strengths of Kant’s Position

Abstract

AbstractKant makes a good case for recognizing the moral law as an objective imperative. Much of his account is highly defensible, though some things need to be filled out. He is at least partly right about transcendental idealism, though perhaps science can take us further towards the underlying spatio-temporal order than Kant believed. He is more open to theories in the third Critique, where he considers us entitled to believe (though not to know) that the future will continue to be orderly, and that this order is due to a designer. Evolution is insufficient to explain our inductive and abductive practices, which take us far beyond the experiences of our ancestors. Nor can it explain our moral concerns for those remote from us. Rational reflection is what is needed. It leads us towards truth in science; Kant rightly holds that rational reflection can lead us to objective truth in morals.