What Should Be? Navigating Moral Exemplarity and Its Categorical Imperative

Authors

MÁCHA Jakub

Year of publication 2023
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Distinctio
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Arts

Citation
Web https://distinctio.net/index.php/home/article/view/45/32
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.56550/d.2.2.2
Keywords Exemplar; Moral Exemplarity; Kant; Categorical imperative; Sensus communis
Description This essay explores the notion of moral exemplarity, positing that our morality is underpinned by moral exemplars – paradigmatic examples of virtuous individuals or actions. Theoretical precepts of moral exemplarity are explored across historical and contemporary contexts, including the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, Stoic and Christian ethics, and recent works of Alexandro Ferrara and Linda Zagzebski. This essay debates the necessity of moral exemplars, the intrinsic moral and epistemic exemplarity, and the distinction between categorical and hypothetical exemplarity, as well as referencing the paradoxical Kantian dismissals of moral exemplarity. It critiques current accounts of moral exemplarity and proposes a transcendental explanation, culminating in an examination of the “exemplarist categorical imperative.”
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