Kantian Rationalism: Inescapability, Authority, and Supremacy

Kant appears to be the ultimate rationalist about moral psychology In claiming that moral requirements express categorical imperatives, he defends the existence of objective moral requirements that are part of practical reason and are supposed to have overriding authority. I want to examine and assess different strands in Kant’s rationalism. In particular, I believe that in claiming that moral requirements are categorical imperatives Kant commits himself to three distinguishable claims. (a) If moral requirements are categorical imperatives, they are objective or inescapable; their application to an agent does not depend on the agent’s own contingent inclinations or interests.