Nerija Putinaite

Straipsnyje aptariamas intersubjektyvumo klausimas vėlyvosios I. Kanto praktinės filosofijos, suprantamos kaip pareigų teorija, kontekste. Atskleidžiama kantiškojo moralės, teisės ir politikos subjekto specifika, ribojanti kalbėjimo apie "kitą" kryptis bei brėžianti laukus, kur "kito" skirtingumas yra netoleruotinas. Raktažodžiai: I. Kanto praktinė filosofija, intersubjektyvumas, Dievas ir žmogus, pareigos teorija, visuomeniškumas ir politinis viešumas. DUTY, PATHOLOGY IN THE LATE PHOLOSOPHY OF I. KANT AND THE PROBLEM OF INTERSUBJECTIVITY Nerija Putinaitė Summary The paper reflects on the question of the status of intersubjectivity in the context of Kantian distinction between duty and pathology. Duty is shown to be the basis for the construction of moral and legal normativity and decisive for the description of an acting subject. The specificity of Kant's moral, legal and political subject is discussed, and the consequences for an intersubjective relation and the community are drawn. The Kantian subject is found to be incorporated into the legal community, not as a constructing element of it. The paper raises a question of the normativity of legal and moral behaviour and asks whether it is possible to deal with the otherness of "the other" not as a mere pathology that has to be eliminated but also as a constructive element of the state. The question is raised: Do in every case intersubjectivity as rooted in the otherness has to be excluded from the sphere of ethics and law as based on the rational normativity? Key words: Practical philosophy of I. Kant, intersubjectivity, God and a human being, doctrine of duty, sociability, political publicity.

The paper is an inquiry into the concept of retributive justice in Kant's "Religion within the Bounds of Reason Alone". Kant proposes an explanation of theological terms in the common field of moral and politic realms. We find two kinds of justice as well as of worlds contrasted in Kant's philosophy: world of the absolute justice of God, and world of human justice. The strongest, rule-based justice is to be exercised in the world of human beings. This kind of justice must be based on the principles of speculative rationality alone. The justice of God is based on two principles: that of prudence and of grace. The possibility of grace that surpasses the speculative ability of human being is a secret or mystery to him. Grace refers to and forms an inner moral historicity of human being. The source of historicity is change of human natural state of guilt and punishment into the state of joyful inner moral development. Only grace makes it possible for human being to change his moral inclinations from vicious to virtuous. Kant considers pain caused by vicious inclinations as a sign of God's retributive justice. The paper raises questions about the possibility of discharge. Hypothesis is held that discharge takes place in time. It shows itself as the inner moral development of the human being and the state. The controversial notions of apologists and critics of Kant's philosophy are presented.

Kant defines ethics as a theory of pure practical reason and virtue, as a disposition to the accomplishment of moral law. Happines is, for him, an empirical determinant of behaviour and it cannot only be the first, but also the passible determinant of behaviour. The human being is distinctive according to the principle of reason that Kant asserts to be of primary and supreme significance. With its judgement, reason oversteps the limits of the empirical world and discovers the unconditional totality of its objects, as suprema good establishes the indispensable identity of happiness with virtue.

The paper deals with the problem of justice in Kant's practical philosophy. In the realm of philosophy of Kant the problem of justice is distinguished by the lack of interest from the side of historians of philosophy and philosophers. The paper is an example of an attempt to deal with the problem of justice in the context of Kant's practical theory. The concept of ultimate practical end is the central for Kant's theory of morals and law. It could be treated as the most important for the inquiry into the problem of justice. The concepts of compulsion, the natural and civil state, the capital punishment and the principal of equality are the most significant guides to our research. The paper also indicates the limits of strict moral interpretation of the concept of justice. It also makes some references to further investigation.

The Natural Standpoint allows for two possible ways of treating the social world: the first, to take it as a finished product for passive investigation, and the second, to take it as a place of action. The chance to overstep the sharp distinction between social observer and social actor is exluded. Schütz’s phenomenological sociology presents the third way, reconciling these two positions. The social world is not merely a finished and observable construction, nor a space of unreflective action. It is continuously in the process of creation, executed by active social observers.

What is the meaning of perestrojka? There is no doubt that it led to the end of the Cold War and had a huge impact on the international situation. Nevertheless, there is no consensus as to the outcomes of perestrojka. Perestrojka brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union. This fact might be interpreted positively: it opened the possibility to restore historical truth and to create independent democratic states. From another perspective, it can be conceived negatively as a destruction of the integrity of the Soviet Union and the loss of a part of the territory as well as the economy of Russia (according to the President of the Gorbačev Foundation, Viktor Kuvaldin, during the conference “Revisiting Perestroika—Processes and Alternatives”). Perestrojka has no one definite general meaning, but it has a very specific one for Lithuania. In this paper I ask: What is the meaning of perestrojka for contemporary Lithuania and for post-Soviet life? Was perestrojka a failure or a success? I approach perestrojka from a moral point of view, suggesting that the perestrojka made possible a fundamental choice between several alternatives. Once the choice was made the specificity of future goals and evaluation of the past opened up. I concentrate on the moral value of the act of accommodation (and resistance) to the Soviet regime, on the conflict of values represented by the “nation’s own” and the goodness of the political order, and on the role of freedom and determinism in history. Immanuel Kant’s conception of duty and the categorical imperative is used as a model for the analysis of the situation of choice.

What is the meaning of perestrojka? There is no doubt that it led to the end of the Cold War and had a huge impact on the international situation. Nevertheless, there is no consensus as to the outcomes of perestrojka. Perestrojka brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union. This fact might be interpreted positively: it opened the possibility to restore historical truth and to create independent democratic states. From another perspective, it can be conceived negatively as a destruction of the integrity of the Soviet Union and the loss of a part of the territory as well as the economy of Russia · Perestrojka has no one definite general meaning, but it has a very specific one for Lithuania. In this paper I ask: What is the meaning of perestrojka for contemporary Lithuania and for post-Soviet life? Was perestrojka a failure or a success? I approach perestrojka from a moral point of view, suggesting that the perestrojka made possible a fundamental choice between several alternatives. Once the choice was made the specificity of future goals and evaluation of the past opened up. I concentrate on the moral value of the act of accommodation to the Soviet regime, on the conflict of values represented by the "nation's own" and the goodness of the political order, and on the role of freedom and determinism in history. Immanuel Kant's conception of duty and the categorical imperative is used as a model for the analysis of the situation of choice.