Christine Korsgaard
Rereads Kant for today: our value comes from our capacity to choose our ends.
Life
American philosopher born in 1952, professor at Harvard and a student of Rawls. She extends Kant in ethics: our value as human beings comes from our capacity to set ourselves ends, and practical identity is the source of obligations. She has also written on our duties to animals.
Main works
Collected essays defending a Kantian reading of morality.
Looks to our practical identity as the source of moral obligations.
Argues that acting is constituting oneself as an agent.
Argues that animals have moral standing that grounds duties toward them.
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceWhenever we act, we must regard ourselves as free to choose, and this standpoint cannot be dropped.
Korsgaard, Self-Constitution (2009)
Moral duties come from the demands of rational agency, following Kant: we must treat humanity as an end.
Korsgaard, Creating the Kingdom of Ends (1996)
Moral truths are constructed by practical reason rather than found in the world, yet they bind everyone (constructivism).
Korsgaard, The Sources of Normativity (1996)