Special Issue and Workshop on Kant’s moral philosophy – beyond the strawman

Editors:

Wim Dubbink; Tilburg University – Jens Timmermann, University of St. Andrews, – Micha Werner; University of Greifswald

All great philosophies get misinterpreted. But in the case of Kant’s 
moral philosophy, the problem seems particularly bad. Textbook 
introductions of Kant’s moral philosophy sometimes seem to have little 
to do with what Kant actually said. For example, some of them refer only 
to Kant’s /Groundwork/ (1785) in order to prove something about his 
applied moral philosophy. Yet in the /Groundwork/ Kant repeatedly states 
that we need to cross a few bridges before we may draw any conclusion 
for normative ethics – let alone applied normative ethics – from what is 
said in the book. The title alone suggests something along those lines: 
/Groundwork to the Metaphysics of Morals/: How much further can you move 
away from applied ethics in a title? Moreover, it is still quite common 
to characterize Kant’s ethics as the paradigm of “deontology”, despite 
the fact that the term is used in so many different (and often broad) 
ways that it tells us hardly anything true and significant about Kant’s 
ethics. Also, while its virtue ethical aspect has gained more attention 
during the last three decades, Kant’s moral philosophy is still often 
introduced – especially in contexts of applied ethics – as fundamentally 
opposed to virtue ethics. Finally, Kant is often portraited as 
“rationalist” pur sang in normative matters, while he is only a 
rationalist in fundamental matters where he has reasons to conceptualize 
human beings /in so far as they are rational/. When it comes to 
normative ethics and questions of judgment in individual cases, Kant 
emphasizes that we need to rely on other faculties, for reason as the 
faculty of principles is insufficient when it comes to concrete judgment.

/The Journal of Ethics/ <https://www.springer.com/journal/10892>would 
like to devote a Special Issue to Kant’s moral philosophy – beyond the 
strawman. It aims to explore what contribution Kant can make to 
contemporary normative and applied ethics. Submissions may focus on 
specific issues of (applied) normative ethics or explain aspects of 
Kant’s moral philosophy that seem still in need of clarification. The 
only requirement is that they must engage with Kant’s original work in 
order to go beyond (still common) strawman versions and stereotypes.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

-Kant on moral judgment in individual cases

-Kant as a virtue ethicist

-The relevance of Kant’s distinction between the doctrine of right and 
the doctrine of virtue for Kantian style applied ethics

-Kant on the relevance of emotions (for moral judgment)

-Kant on exceptions to principles

-Kant on international justice

-A Kantian view on artificial intelligence

-Kant on misconduct in organizations

-Kant on human flourishing

-Teleological elements in Kant’s moral philosophy

-Elements of precautionary reasoning in Kant

-Kant on the normative status of (parts of) the human body

-Kant and the modern concept of human rights

-Kant on common moral thinking and the role of moral philosophy


     The Special Issue is accompanied by a conference in which (draft)
     papers will be discussed. The conference is hosted by the University
     of Greifswald and will be held on 27 and 28 May 2025. The conference
     will also host a key note lecture for a broader audience. It is
     highly recommended to attend the conference but no requirement for
     submitting a paper.


     Submission instructions

The submission process has three steps. First, a max 500-word abstract 
has to be sent to kant25@uni-greifswald.de 
<micha.werner@uni-greifswald.de>before 30 October 2024. Authors 
of accepted abstracts will be invited to the workshop onTuesday 27 and 
Wednesday 28 May 2025at the Alfried Krupp Kolleg Greifswald to present 
and discuss the drafts /of their full papers /with other manuscript 
authors and experts in the field. Meals are by courtesy of the Krupp 
Kolleg. /The/ /Journal of Ethics/ can cover (part of) the hotel costs of 
those who most need it.

The completed manuscripts must be submitted to /The Journal of Ethics 
/before 1 September 2025. We envision the review process to be finalized 
by February 2026. Authors must make use of the standard online EM 
system. All manuscripts will go through the standard double-blind 
peer-review process according to /The Journal of Ethics/’ guidelines. As 
a matter of general policy on special issues, all submission will also 
be checked by the editor-in-chief. Interested authors can also submit 
their manuscripts without having attended the Greifswald conference. All 
manuscripts should be prepared according to the journal’s guidelines 
<https://www.springer.com/journal/10892/submission-guidelines>provided 
on /The Journal of Ethics/ website.

Any questions with regard to this Special Issue, please address to the 
co-editor of the issue, Wim Dubbink at W.Dubbink@tilburguniversity.edu 
<W.Dubbink@tilburguniversity.edu>