In 1980, the liberal political philosopher John Rawls delivered a remarkable series of lectures at Columbia University. The Dewey Lectures, subsequently published in the Journal of Philosophy as “Kantian Constructivism in Moral Theory,” detailed a metaethical procedure–or method for formulating principles–that informed his earlier A Theory of Justice (1971) and that would make possible its sequ...

The conventional wisdom regarding the aims and shortcomings of Kantian constructivism is mistaken. aim metaethical not to provide a naturalistic account objectivity normative facts by deriving substantive morality from conception agency so thin as be uncontroversial (a task at which it generally regarded have failed). Its explain “grip” that on us—to avoid what I call problem alienation. So und...

Abstract According to Kant’s ethics, at least on one common interpretation, persons have a special worth or dignity that demands respect. But personhood is not coextensive with human life; for example, individuals can live in severe dementia after losing the capacities constitutive of personhood. Some philosophers, including David Velleman and Dennis Cooley, suggested living loss their might of...

This work presents a game theoretic model to describe game situations in which there is a partial cooperation among the players. Specifically, we assume that the players partially follow Kant’s “Categorical Imperative”. The model is stated for games with a continuum of players and the basic assumption made is that the participants consider that they belong to virtual groups in which they optimi...

abstract. in the 18th century, the term ‘wit’ was held to be almost equal to the term ‘spirit’, and its notion, being applied both in music and in literature, was one of the most fundamental themes in poetry in the age of enlightenment. the meaning of the word changed during the time, however, its importance lasted until the romantic era. at that period, the term ‘wit’ was defined as ‘intellige...