Compulsion or Attractiveness - A False Dichotomy? A Kantian Perspective on the Sources of Moral Motivation

Abstract

The essay questions the dichotomy between ‘push’ and ‘pull’ motivation to act morally, asking for the motivational power of Kant’s categorical imperative instead, its functionality as well as its sources. With reference to Christine Korsgaard it can be shown that personal integrity together with the notion of an ideal common world form one single source of motivation, grounded in exercising our autonomy. In a last step this outline of a kantian ethics of automony is related to the notion of God, whose role is illustrated in Kant’s Religion Within in a surprising way.