Authority And Truth In Morality:A Defense Of Kantian Constructivism

When we reflect on our moral life,it’s not difficult to find that we are not indifferent to most of moral requirements.We are motivational to confirm to such requirements for their correctness and fairness rather than external pressure.It means that moral reason is motivational and normative.Therefore,a satisfying account of nature of moral reason proposed by moral philosophers must be able to explain such experiences we had in moral life.In this dissertation,I would point out that realists’ account of the nature of moral reason mistakenly separate human’s agency and moral reasons which would fail to provide an explanation on the motivational force of moral reason.Expressivists always try to understand motivational states in factual terms which would explain away normativity.It means that they fail to explain why that morality always has been presented as obligation.However,constructivists believe that we have to understand practical reason from the practical standpoint.They think a rational agent could occupy a general standpoint of agency,and regard herself as a general agent.Rational agents could derive constitutive principles of agency from such standpoint.By following such principles,agents would make themselves agents and achieve their agency.Therefore,Practical reasons are just constructed on such principles by humans.However,a general standpoint of agency implies that,on the one hand,an agent must act according to normative concept;on the other hand,an agent doesn’t have any particular judgment.Thus,the constitutive principle of agency which would provide justifying reasons for actions can only be categorical imperative.The reason is that categorical imperative is the form of laws which means that it could provide justification for our action without on any particular judgements.Therefore,Authority and truth of morality are grounded on human agency because moral principles are constitutive principles of agency.This account on moral reason and agency emphasizes the significance of practical standpoint which would help us to understand why we could attribute a bad action to an agent.Because Categorical Imperative as the constitutive principle of agency is the fundamental solution to the problem faced by an agent who has to re-unify her agency,it is not an external standard to evaluate whether an agent has the property of autonomy or not in fact.And practical standpoint also clarifies that constructivists’ claim that humanity must be treated as an end in itself is a practical attitude,it doesn’t mean that there is objective value in humanity.