Citation

Uleman J. Kantian Review 2016; 21(1): 77-100.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016)

DOI

10.1017/S136941541500031X

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Kant's most canonical argument against suicide, the universal law argument, is widely dismissed. This paper attempts to save it, showing that a suicide maxim, universalized, undermines all bases for practical law, resisting both the non-negotiable value of free rational willing and the ordinary array of sensuous commitments that inform prudential incentives. Suicide therefore undermines moral law-governed community as a whole, threatening 'savage disorder'. In pursuing this argument, I propose a non-teleological and non-theoretical nature - a 'practical nature' or moral law governed whole - the realization of which morality demands. © 2016 Kantian Review.

Language: en

Keywords

Suicide; Kant; Lawlessness; Moral community; Moral law; Practical nature