Kantian Moral Concern, Love, and Respect

Abstract

This chapter addresses the question what it means for anyone to ‘matter’ in Kant’s ethics. The chapter first offers a Kantian analysis of ‘moral status’ vocabulary. It then introduces some main themes of Kant’s interpersonal ethics: his system of distinctions between different duty-types we have towards others, others’ happiness as an obligatory end, the demand for practical love and respect, his list of specific duties we have towards others, and the practical purpose of Kant’s ethics in general. This clarifies what it means to include animals in moral concern in later chapters. It also introduces animal ethicists to unfamiliar aspects of Kant’s ethics.