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1237Kant on Virtue and the VirtuesIn Nancy Snow (ed.), Cultivating Virtue: Multiple Perspectives, . pp. 87-110. 2014.Immanuel Kant is known for his ideas about duty and morally worthy acts, but his conception of virtue is less familiar. Nevertheless Kant’s understanding of virtue is quite distinctive and has considerable merit compared to the most familiar conceptions. Kant also took moral education seriously, writing extensively on both the duty of adults to cultivate virtue and the empirical conditions to prepare children for this life-long responsibility. Our aim is, first, to explain Kant’s conception of v…Read more
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447Servility and self-respectThe Monist 57 (1). 1973.Thomas E. Hill, Jr.; Servility and Self-Respect, The Monist, Volume 57, Issue 1, 1 January 1973, Pages 87–104, https://doi.org/10.5840/monist197357135.
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331The Message of Affirmative ActionSocial Philosophy and Policy 8 (2): 108-129. 1991.Affirmative action programs remain controversial, I suspect, partly because the familiar arguments for and against them start from significantly different moral perspectives. Thus I want to step back for a while from the details of debate about particular programs and give attention to the moral viewpoints presupposed in differenttypesof argument. My aim, more specifically, is to compare the “messages” expressed when affirmative action is defended from different moral perspectives. Exclusively f…Read more
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197Autonomy and self-respectCambridge University Press. 1991.This stimulating collection of essays in ethics eschews the simple exposition and refinement of abstract theories. Rather, the author focuses on everyday moral issues, often neglected by philosophers, and explores the deeper theoretical questions which they raise. Such issues are: Is it wrong to tell a lie to protect someone from a painful truth? Should one commit a lesser evil to prevent another from doing something worse? Can one be both autonomous and compassionate? Other topics discussed are…Read more
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169Happiness and Human Flourishing in Kant's Ethics: THOMAS E. HILL, JRSocial Philosophy and Policy 16 (1): 143-175. 1999.Ancient moral philosophers, especially Aristotle and his followers, typically shared the assumption that ethics is primarily concerned with how to achieve the final end for human beings, a life of “happiness” or “human flourishing.” This final end was not a subjective condition, such as contentment or the satisfaction of our preferences, but a life that could be objectively determined to be appropriate to our nature as human beings. Character traits were treated as moral virtues because they con…Read more
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147Hypothetical Consent in Kantian ConstructivismSocial Philosophy and Policy 18 (2): 300-329. 2001.Epistemology, as I understand it, is a branch of philosophy especially concerned with general questions about how we can know various things or at least justify our beliefs about them. It questions what counts as evidence and what are reasonable sources of doubt. Traditionally, episte-mology focuses on pervasive and apparently basic assumptions covering a wide range of claims to knowledge or justified belief rather than very specific, practical puzzles. For example, traditional epistemologists a…Read more
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145Respect, pluralism, and justice: Kantian perspectivesOxford University Press. 1995.Respect, Pluralism, and Justice is a series of essays which sketches a broadly Kantian framework for moral deliberation, and then uses it to address important social and political issues. Hill shows how Kantian theory can be developed to deal with questions about cultural diversity, punishment, political violence, responsibility for the consequences of wrongdoing, and state coercion in a pluralistic society
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139Kant’s Theory of Practical ReasonThe Monist 72 (3). 1989.Contemporary discussions of practical reason often refer vaguely to the Kantian conception of reasons as an alternative to various means-ends theories, but it is rarely clear what this is supposed to be, except that somehow moral concerns are supposed to fare better under the Kantian conception. The theories of Nagel, Gewirth, Darwall, and Donagan have been labeled “Kantian” because they deviate strikingly from standard preference models, but their roots in Kant have not been traced in detail an…Read more
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118Human welfare and moral worth: Kantian perspectivesOxford University Press. 2002.Thomas Hill, a leading figure in the recent development of Kantian moral philosophy, presents a set of essays exploring the implications of basic Kantian ideas for practical issues. The first part of the book provides background in central themes in Kant's ethics; the second part discusses questions regarding human welfare; the third focuses on moral worth-the nature and grounds of moral assessment of persons as deserving esteem or blame. Hill shows moral, political, and social philosophers just…Read more
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102A Kantian perspective on political violenceThe Journal of Ethics 1 (2). 1997.Rejecting Kant''s absolute opposition to revolution, I propose a modified Kantian perspective for reflecting on political violence, drawing from Kant''s basic ideas but abandoning some dubious assumptions. Developing suggestions in earlier papers, the essay sketches a model for moral legislation that combines the core ideas of each of Kant''s formulas of the Categorical Imperative. Though only a framework for deliberation, not a complete decision procedure, this excludes extremist positions, pro…Read more
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90Moral Construction as a Task: Sources and LimitsSocial Philosophy and Policy 25 (1): 214-236. 2008.This essay first distinguishes different questions regarding moral objectivity and relativism and then sketches a broadly Kantian position on two of these questions. First, how, if at all, can we derive, justify, or support specific moral principles and judgments from more basic moral standards and values? Second, how, if at all, can the basic standards such as my broadly Kantian perspective, be defended? Regarding the first question, the broadly Kantian position is that from ideas in Kant's lat…Read more
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87The concept of the categorical imperativeJournal of the History of Philosophy 8 (2): 222-224. 1970.
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80The Blackwell Guide to Kant's Ethics (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2009.Through a collection of new, previously unpublished essays, _The_ _Blackwell Guide to Kant’s Ethics_ addresses diverse topics crucial to our understanding of Kant's moral philosophy and its implications for the modern age. Provides a fresh perspective on themes in Kant’s moral philosophy Addresses systematically Kant’s foundational work, _Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals_ and his more specific treatment of justice and virtue in _The Metaphysics of Morals_ Includes essays by both establis…Read more
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79Recent Books on Kant: Kant's Theory of Imagination; Kant and the Experience of Freedom; Aesthetic Judgement and the Moral Image of the World; Dignity and Practical Reason; Immanuel Kant; Kant's Compatibilism; Kant's Transcendental Psychology; The Unity of Reason; Kant's Theory of Justice (review)Philosophical Quarterly 46 (183): 226. 1996.
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76The Kantian conception of autonomyIn John Philip Christman (ed.), The Inner citadel: essays on individual autonomy, Oxford University Press. pp. 91--105. 1989.
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75Virtue, Rules, and Justice: Kantian AspirationsOxford University Press. 2012.Thomas E. Hill, Jr., interprets and extends Kant's moral theory in a series of essays that highlight its relevance to contemporary ethics. He introduces the major themes of Kantian ethics and explores its practical application to questions about revolution, prison reform, and forcible interventions in other countries for humanitarian purposes.
Areas of Specialization
Value Theory |
History of Western Philosophy |
Philosophical Traditions |
Areas of Interest
Value Theory |
History of Western Philosophy |
Philosophical Traditions |