{"id":1071,"date":"2011-05-11T10:51:29","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T09:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=1071"},"modified":"2011-05-11T10:51:29","modified_gmt":"2011-05-11T09:51:29","slug":"musing-about-kant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2011\/05\/11\/musing-about-kant\/","title":{"rendered":"Musing about Kant"},"content":{"rendered":"

So… I’ve been writing a paper on Kant, the basic thrust of which is to assert the importance of respect for autonomy over and above respect for persons. \u00a0(That is, I think that Kant thinks that we ought to respect persons because they’re autonomous; this is in contrast to the modern idea that we ought to respect autonomy because it’s a property of persons.) \u00a0But\u00a0the journal’s word limit has meant that I can’t fit some bits in – so I’ll shove ’em here instead.<\/p>\n

One line I’ve had to drop has to do with what seems like a blind-spot in the Categorical Imperative (or “another blind spot”, if you’re that way inclined). \u00a0If there is only one CI (and Kant claims that there is), and if the CI mandates respect for autonomy (and he claims that it does), there ought to be a way to say that any wrong action is a violation of respect for autonomy, either in oneself or others. \u00a0(If we couldn’t tie all wrongful actions to that, there’d have to be more than one principle of morality.) \u00a0Correspondingly, any claim that an action violates respect for persons, on the reading of Kant that I favour, would have to be translatable into a claim about it failing to respect autonomy. \u00a0But\u00a0there are some times when Kantian respect for autonomy looks quite weak in comparison to a \u201crespect for persons\u201d claim.\u00a0 Take, for example, recent*\u00a0controversy<\/a> about Christian doctors demanding the right to ask patients if they can pray for them.\u00a0\u00a0I think that such an offer ought not to be made.\u00a0 Part of my objection has to do with respecting the integrity of the patient, and I guess that this has some kind of relationship with a claim about respect for persons. \u00a0However, I’m really struggling to see how this could be substantiated by means of an appeal to autonomy.\u00a0 So if respect for autonomy is fundamental to morality \u2013 as I think it is for Kant \u2013 the offer would not violate the duty.\u00a0 Since I think it does, I must think that, at least, there is something missing from Kant\u2019s account.<\/p>\n

*Blimey. \u00a0It’s not as recent as I thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So… I’ve been writing a paper on Kant, the basic thrust of which is to assert the importance of respect for autonomy over and above respect for persons. \u00a0(That is, I think that Kant thinks that we ought to respect persons because they’re autonomous; this is in contrast to the modern idea that we ought […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2141,328,472],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gratuitous-misuse-of-the-blog","category-philosophy","category-thinking-aloud"],"yoast_head":"\nMusing about Kant - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2011\/05\/11\/musing-about-kant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Musing about Kant - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So… I’ve been writing a paper on Kant, the basic thrust of which is to assert the importance of respect for autonomy over and above respect for persons. \u00a0(That is, I think that Kant thinks that we ought to respect persons because they’re autonomous; this is in contrast to the modern idea that we ought [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2011\/05\/11\/musing-about-kant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-11T09:51:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2011\\\/05\\\/11\\\/musing-about-kant\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2011\\\/05\\\/11\\\/musing-about-kant\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Musing about Kant\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-11T09:51:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2011\\\/05\\\/11\\\/musing-about-kant\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":380,\"commentCount\":146,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Gratuitous Misuse of the Blog\",\"Philosophy\",\"Thinking Aloud\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2011\\\/05\\\/11\\\/musing-about-kant\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2011\\\/05\\\/11\\\/musing-about-kant\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2011\\\/05\\\/11\\\/musing-about-kant\\\/\",\"name\":\"Musing about Kant - 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