Kant on Means, Ends and Trolleys

We are happy to announce a conference on the topic “Kant on Means, Ends, and Trolleys” which will take place on September 6-7, 2024. The conference is co-organized and hosted by the research network Using People Well, Treating People Badly (https://sites.google.com/view/usingpeoplewell) and Digitales Kant-Zentrum NRW (https://kant-zentrum-nrw.de). It will take place right before the 14th International Kant Congress in Bonn. If you plan to attend the congress, please consider arriving early for the conference. 

The conference will follow a two-fold structure: On the first day, we will discuss Kant’s thoughts on treating people as mere means vs. ends in themselves, instrumentalization, and the realm of ends. On the second day, we will explore Kantian approaches to the trolley-problem. 

Program: 

September 6 (9 am – 6 pm): Means and Ends

·      Melissa Fahmy: Exploitation and Mere Means Use

·      Laura Papish: Our Shared Humanity and Exit from the State of Nature

·      Corinna Mieth und Martin Sticker: Beyond Non-Instrumentalization: Negative Ends, Mere Things and Mere Enemies

·      Garrath Williams: Using People as Not-Mere-Means: the Importance of Equity

September 7 (9 am – 6 pm): Trolleys

·      Samuel Kahn: Kantian Trolleyology

·      Samuel Kerstein: Out of the Loop

·      Pauline Kleingeld: Was Kant on the Right Track?

·      Elke E. Schmidt: Kant’s Argument Not to Turn the Trolley

Venue: Bonn (one of the venues of the Kant Congress)

Organizers: Larissa Berger, Corinna Mieth, Elke E. Schmidt, Dieter Schönecker, and Martin Sticker

If you plan to attend the conference, please contact Larissa Berger ([email protected]).