Miscellaneous
Paper given by Alice Pinheiro Walla (Trinity College, Dublin). This paper addresses problems arising from Kant’s distinction between perfect and imperfect duties. Firstly, I discuss the intuition that imperfect duties are able to “trump” perfect ones under certain circumstances. If this intuition is correct, Kant’s distinction between perfect and imperfect duties seems irrelevant, since it is not the logical structure of the duty that tells us what is to be done under the circumstances. Further, if this intuition is correct, there is the also the worry that beneficence may be far more demanding than Kant himself realized. I also mention the “tragic side” of Kant’s moral theory, which does not exclude the possibility of agents having to sacrifice their happiness for the sake of morality. I offer possible ways to address these problems compatible with Kant’s theory.