CFP: Conscience and Moral Self-Knowledge in Kant and German Idealism

According to Kant, your first duty to yourself and the “beginning of all human wisdom” is to know yourself (MM, 6:441). But what kind of knowledge is this, how can we attain it, and how is it relevant to our moral agency? Kant’s conception of the self and the subjective conditions for moral actions were challenged by subsequent thinkers like Fries, Fichte, and Hegel who identified alleged tensions in Kant’s account and proposed innovative solutions. The question about the relation between self-knowledge and morality is still subject to debate among scholars of Kant and German Idealism.

Proposed topics for papers:

- The sources of self-knowledge

- Self-deception

- Evil

- Conscience

- Inner sense

- Moral feelings

- Knowledge of self and knowledge of others

- Subjective and objective conditions for morality

Invited speakers include: Jeanine Grenberg (St. Olaf College), Dean Moyar (John Hopkins University), Jens Timmerman (University of St. Andrews) and Owen Ware (Simon Fraser University).

We hereby invite abstracts for papers on the conference topics. The speakers who get accepted will be given 30 minutes for presentation, followed by discussion. To prepare the application for blind review, the proposals should consist of two documents:

- The title and abstract of the paper (300­–500 words) stating the topic of the paper, and an outline of the argument.

- A cover letter stating your name, the title of your paper, academic position, affiliation and contact information.

The application should be send as an attachment to [email protected]

Decisions will be communicated by the end of May.