Abstract for the Kant in Asia International Conference

at Hong Kong Baptist University

20-23 May 2009

Takayuki Kisaka, ¡§Human Personhood between Moral Law and Cultural Values¡¨

Kant's Ethics is formal. But human personhood does not necessarily consist only of formal values. In Kant's formal moral law empirical-anthropological and Christian values are contained in some way. Concerning this point we should distinguish the universalizability principle as a kind of logical principle from the material values in Kant's ethics. The universalizability principle itself may be general, i.e. valid all over the world. But the material values in Kant's ethics are not always general. We rather find a subjective and cultural value-orientation principle in Kant's more minor work "Was heisst : sich im Denken orientieren?" for example. It is "the feeling(das Gefuehl) of the right and left hands". We interpret this "feeling" of material and religious values as a "cultural value-orientation principle". On its basis we can generally combine the universalizability principle with some cultural and material values. Human personhood is only formal in relation to the universalizability principle. But it cannot avoid having some specific cultural characters concerning ethical values. Formal human personhood acquires its moral substance on the basis of cultural and material values.

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