Subject, Normativity, World

Abstract

The dissertation examines how Kantian constructivism seeks to retain a Kantian theory of ethics without the burden of Kant’s metaphysics. I examine Rawls’ decision to sidestep the problem of metaphysics altogether. I then look at Korsgaard’s attempt to provide a more solid founding for ethical deliberation using what she calls the constitutive standards of action. I find this approach successful but still too vague about the particular context of judgment. I contrast these two approaches with Hegel’s claim that normativity is essentially social; that is, that the origin of normativity is not the individual’s own mind but the historically developed set of social institutions into which he or she is born. In this, I do not see Hegel as an adversary of the Kantian tradition, but rather its strongest proponent.