Hence, it is not left to the philosopher's discretion whether he wants to remove the seeming conflict [between nature and freedom] or leave it untouched; for, in the latter case the theory about this would be bonum vacans, into possession of which the fatalist could justifiably enter and chase all morals from its supposed property, as occupying it without title.
Groundwork, 4:456
An apparent warning to philosophers who simply want to assume freedom; a warning to political philosophers who don't want to grapple with the possible baggage that a clear concept of freedom might carry; an assault on libertarians stripping morality from property with an abstraction of freedom from title.
No comments:
Post a Comment