In defense of an ordinary life Kantian view on the scope of moral requirement

Abstract

This paper examines Kant's line of argumentation for the establishment of the highest principles of morality against the background of ethical naturalism. The primary problem of moral philosophy is to understand in what sense we speak of the concept of ‘morality’. Whereas the ordinary understanding of morality is that it comes from nature, Kant argues that morality comes from reason, or that it is a rational norm. Having established the highest principles and norms of morality, Kantian moral philosophy then proceeds to argue that these highest principles and norms are binding on our reality as human beings. This argument is systematically necessary for Kantian moralists. Norms are norms in the sense that they are binding in practice, and therefore the highest moral norms have to be binding in the sense that they are most necessarily binding on practical action, otherwise this would be contrary to the meaning of the highest norms themselves.