Less than Zero: Kant’s Opposition to Suicide

TY - CHAP

T1 - Less than Zero

T2 - Kant’s Opposition to Suicide

AU - Callanan, John J.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © the several contributors 2021.

PY - 2021/1/1

Y1 - 2021/1/1

N2 - This chapter examines the historical context of Kant’s opposition to suicide in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. I argue for an interpretation of his argument - generally thought unsuccessful - whereby Kant is assuming a premise that claims that the mathematical calculations of life’s anticipated pleasures and pains always produces a negative result. I claim that Kant’s broader rhetorical aim to counteract a cultural movement in 18th Century European society that promoted appeal to the passions as the justificatory grounds for moral actions.

AB - This chapter examines the historical context of Kant’s opposition to suicide in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. I argue for an interpretation of his argument - generally thought unsuccessful - whereby Kant is assuming a premise that claims that the mathematical calculations of life’s anticipated pleasures and pains always produces a negative result. I claim that Kant’s broader rhetorical aim to counteract a cultural movement in 18th Century European society that promoted appeal to the passions as the justificatory grounds for moral actions.

KW - Ethics

KW - Kant

KW - Mathematics

KW - Maupertuis

KW - Rousseau

KW - Suicide

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134942784&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/oso/9780192843616.003.0013

DO - 10.1093/oso/9780192843616.003.0013

M3 - Chapter

AN - SCOPUS:85134942784

SP - 239

EP - 260

BT - Life and Death in Early Modern Philosophy

PB - Oxford University Press

ER -