Abstract for the Kant in Asia International Conference

at Hong Kong Baptist University

20-23 May 2009

Robert Gressis, “Rigorism, Moral Outlooks, and Varieties of Evil and Good People”

In Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, Kant advances rigorism, the position that everyone has a good or an evil disposition (i.e., is good or evil). Allison takes rigorism to entail the implausible view that performing even one immoral action makes one evil. After all, Kant thinks agents act freely, so anyone who acts immorally favors her self-interest over her duty, which is just what it is to have an evil disposition. But this cannot be Kant's view, for he says that good agents sometimes violate the moral law. In this presentation, I show that Kant can maintain both rigorism and the view that good people can do immoral things, because dispositions are outlooks on the moral world that can withstand occasional deviations. Consequently, Kant's rigorism becomes more plausible, because it becomes compatible with a broader typology of good and evil people.

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