Kant on Goodness

This workshop aims to explore Kant’s view of goodness, and to investigate how it relates to the potential for degrees of goodness.

The meanings of gradable adjectives—words like ‘big’, ‘clean’, ‘bumpy’ and ‘ugly’—involve properties that come in degrees, insofar as an object can possess them to a greater or lesser extent. The word ‘good’ also seems to be a gradable adjective: we often describe one action as ‘morally better’ than another. This observation has initiated a research programme in linguistics, metaethics and value theory that investigates goodness as a property that comes in degrees. How does this research programme connect to Kant’s view of goodness? On one hand, Kant’s notion of a highest good aligns with the idea of a scale of goodness with an upper endpoint. If this is correct, then the question emerges of what degree of goodness a will, action, agent or world must have to count as strictly ‘morally good’. On the other hand, further aspects of Kant’s views seem to suggest that moral goodness is something binary rather than graded. Questions of interest include: What is Kant’s notion of the highest good?  What is the relation between his notion of moral goodness and natural goodness? Is there a requirement to maximize goodness and, if not, what attitude are we to take towards the good? How is the attitude we are to take towards the good impacted by the idea that goodness comes in degrees? And are empirical issues related to language use relevant to an ethical approach that is a priori? 

Attendance is free and open to all, but registration is required via email.

This conference is funded by Poppy Mankowitz's ERC Starting Grant 'Expressing Value in Language' (EVIL, No. 101162444). For further information on the project see: https://project-evil.com/