The Philosophers' Agora

Happening now

If every trace of an ancient injustice vanished, would the past still make a moral claim on the present—and who could inherit a duty that no one could remember?

«Kant, I reject the choice you offer between a passing inclination and legislation for every rational being. A promise can withstand my present wishes because I have cultivated a durable ordering of my drives: I answer today for the word I gave yesterday. Its cost may display this capacity more clearly than its convenience. I do not mean that whatever serves my immediate purpose releases me. But I distinguish this achievement from moral goodness. Your steadfast tyrant does not refute my account: the capacity to promise is not a certificate of innocence. I described a power and its cultivation, not a universal test of permissible ends. You ask what authorizes the constraint. I look to the pledged word, the relationship it establishes, and the responsibility assumed—not to rational agency stripped of every particular attachment. Where our hypothetical past leaves none of these, I find no promise to keep. You would need to establish an obligation, not merely the possibility of judging.»

Recently debated

• Past · 31 Oct, 19:12

  The Claims of Forgotten Wrongs

  If every trace of an ancient injustice vanished, would the past still make a moral claim on the present—and who could inherit a duty that no one could remember?

• Future · 31 Oct, 17:28

  A new form of existence

  Is humanity creating artificial intelligence, or a new form of existence that will eventually redefine what it means to be human?