Kant and ‘Merit’: Retrieving a Neglected Notion of Verdienst.

Sorin Baiasu (Keele University, Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, Oxford University)

The Digital Kant-Centre NRW is pleased to invite you to a lecture by Sorin Baiasu (Keele University) with the following topic: "Kant and ‘Merit’: Retrieving a Neglected Notion of Verdienst."

The lecture will take place online (via Webex) on Wednesday, 26 June 2024, from 18:00 – 19:30 CET.

Please see below for the Webex-link and an abstract of the lecture. 

The talk is part of the lecture series Digital Kant-Lectures, organized by Digital Kant-Centre NRW, which takes place on the last Wednesday of each month via Webex. For the program of the series, please see here: https://kant-zentrum-nrw.de/digital-kant-lectures/

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Webex-Link: 

https://uni-siegen.webex.com/uni-siegen/j.php?MTID=m12bbbab88e3163edcc93ff14b6e5122f

Abstract: 

In this paper, I focus on Kant’s discussion of equality of opportunity in the Rechtslehre, specifically at 6: 329. As a first step, I examine an influential interpretation of Kant’s discussion and show how it attempts to dissociate Kant from the very notion of merit [Verdienst] that he is using in the discussion of equal opportunities. Next, I examine the notion of merit usually associated with Kant’s theory of justice, and claim that it is distinct from the notion employed at 6: 329. Finally, I reconstruct this neglected notion by drawing on contemporary discussions of desertism and luck-egalitarianism.