Duty and Desolation
Kant put objectification on the moral map: we should not treat each other as ‘means’, instruments, tools. Kant's correspondence with Maria von Herbert offers a real life illumination: how lying and suicide involve treating someone as a means; how love and friendship involve treating someone as an end; how this works against a backdrop of sexual objectification, which may justify lying, in Maria's case. It illustrates objectification and ‘objective’ attitudes (Strawson, Korsgaard). And it presents a challenge. Maria is sunk in misery and apathy, yet follows the moral law — she is perhaps a Kantian saint. What does this spell for Kant's philosophy?
Keywords: Kant, objectification, Maria von Herbert, lying, lying, suicide, love, friendship, apathy, objective attitude
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .