Abstract
When the Reflective Watch-Dog Barks: Conscience and Self-Deception in Kant
Highlights
I discuss Kant’s conception of conscience in the context of his conceptions of two phenomena central to Kant’s practical philosophy: ordinary moral-cognition and selfdeception
I argue that Kant’s model of an internal court of conscience is inadequate to account for the pervasive threat self-deception poses
I will provide a brief overview of possible functions of conscience in Kant and explain Kant’s conception of conscience as a reflective watch-dog: Conscience does not judge directly about our duty in concrete cases but it watches over or reflects about how cautiously an agent uses her rational capacities when she reasons about concrete matters of duty
Summary
I will lay out those elements of Kant’s philosophy without which we cannot properly understand conscience. These elements are the capacity of every rational agent to obtain moral knowledge via a simple universalization procedure (1.1), and a propensity to self-deception (1.2)
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