A Kantian Perspective on Individual Responsibility for Sustainability. Issue 1 (2nd January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wallace, Kathleen
• Is Part Of: Ethics, policy & environment. Volume 24:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 44
• Page End: 59
• Publication Date: 2021-01-02
• Subjects: Kant -- deontological ethics -- sustainability -- responsibility -- anthropocene -- contradiction -- moral duty; Environmental ethics -- Periodicals; Environmental policy -- Periodicals; 179.1
• DOI: 10.1080/21550085.2021.1904531
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2155-0085

Abstract

ABSTRACT: I suggest that the Kantian categorical imperative can be a basis for an ethical duty to live sustainably. The universalizability formulation of the categorical imperative should be seen as a test of whether the principle underlying a way of life is self-destructive of the system of living and acting which makes the way of life possible. In exploring this interpretation the self should be conceptualized as a socially and system-constituted being, rather than an atomized will. In this sense, a self which lives in a way that is destructive of the system of life, is also in principle willing its own self-destruction.