What Is Kantian Ethics?

Some recent moral philosophers draw a distinction between Kant's ethics and Kantian ethics. Kant's ethics is contained in Kant's own writings: the Groundwork, the Critique of Practical Reason, the Metaphysics of Morals, and the others. It is the theory Kant himself put forward, the fundamental principle of morality as he formulated it, the system of duties as he presented it, even the moral conclusions he thought followed from them. To write about Kant's ethics is to interpret that theory, to show how its parts are supposed to fit together, to relate it to Kant's philosophy as a whole. Kantian ethics, on the other hand, is an ethical theory formulated in the basic spirit of Kant, drawing on and acknowledging a debt to what the author of the theory takes to be his insights in moral philosophy. Kantian ethics is not merely, or even mainly, an interpretation of what Kant said. It is put forward instead as a theoretical option in thinking about ethical questions and philosophical questions about ethics. It is answerable not to textual accuracy or exegetical standards of Kant interpretation but to the right standards for thinking philosophically about ethical theory and ethical issues.

It should be clearly understood, however, what these standards are – and what they are not. Some philosophers seem to think that each proposition in a theory must be argued for entirely on its own, using arguments that are supposed to persuade anyone at all, even someone with no sympathy whatever for the project in which the theory is engaged.