Why Is Kant Noncommittal About Grace?

  • Robert Gressis California State University, Northridge
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1095823
Palabras clave: Evil, Grace, Kant, Moral Revolution

Resumen

In Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason, Kant claims that we may need to invoke divine aid in order to explain how a person can change from evil to good. Kant’s language is a bit curious; why does he not more clearly assert, either that we must posit divine grace, or that we may not? The explanation is this: if we affirm that God grants aid, then this could convince people to passively await it or to think, upon becoming good, that they are part of a special elect. On the other hand, if we affirm that God does not help, then some may despair of ever becoming good while those who successfully change could become arrogant. Thus, Kant is noncommittal about grace because it allows the morally timorous to have hope that they can change, and the morally successful to avoid hubris. 

Biografía del autor/a

Robert Gressis, California State University, Northridge
Robert Gressis is an associate professor of philosophy at California State University, Northridge. His recent publications include: “The Spirit of Radical Evil: Kant’s Development of Theodicy and Its Role in the Development of Radical Evil” (Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, forthcoming), “21% versus 79%: Explaining Philosophy’s Gender Disparities with Stereotyping and Identification” (with Debbie Ma, Clennie Foster, and Nanae Tachibe, Philosophical Psychology, forthcoming), “True Religion in Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion” (with Tim Black, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2017), and “Does Religious Belief Matter for Grief and Death Anxiety? Experimental Philosophy Meets Psychology of Religion” (with David B. Feldman and Ian C. Fischer, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2016). He is currently working on a paper on the three levels of the propensity to evil in the Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason, as well as a defense of the “steadfast” approach in the epistemology of disagreement.
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Publicado
2017-12-08
Cómo citar
Gressis R. (2017). Why Is Kant Noncommittal About Grace?. Con-Textos Kantianos. International Journal of Philosophy, 6, 272-284. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1095823
Número
Núm. 6 (2017)
Sección
Discusiones