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KANTIAN PRACTICAL LOVE
Author(s) -
FAHMY MELISSA SEYMOUR
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
pacific philosophical quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.914
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1468-0114
pISSN - 0279-0750
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0114.2010.01369.x
Subject(s) - duty , virtue , philosophy , beneficence , doctrine , absurdity , feeling , epistemology , law , autonomy , theology , political science
In the Doctrine of Virtue Kant stipulates that ‘ Love is a matter of feeling , not of willing . . . so a duty to love is an absurdity.’ Nonetheless, in the same work Kant claims that we have duties of love to other human beings. According to Kant, the kind of love which is commanded by duty is practical love . This paper defends the view that the duty of practical love articulated in the Doctrine of Virtue is distinct from the duty of beneficence and best understood as a duty of self‐transformation, which agents observe by cultivating a benevolent disposition and practical beneficent desires.