This covers Kantian deontological ethics — specifically how duty and autonomy are reconciled through the idea that the moral law is self-legislated by pure reason, making the categorical imperative universal across rational agents, and how Kant's two-standpoints distinction (the sensible/phenomenal world of causal determination versus the intelligible/noumenal world of freedom) grounds the possibility of moral autonomy. It further examines Kant's absolute prohibition on lying (including the "murderer at the door" problem and the distinction between a lie and a misleading-but-true statement) and extends into social contract theory, contrasting Kant's and Rawls's accounts of a hypothetical (rather than actual) contract — including Rawls's "veil of ignorance" — with the two distinct grounds on which actual contracts generate moral obligation: consent (autonomy) and reciprocity (mutual benefit). The domain is moral and political philosophy, specifically deontological ethics and contractarian theories of justice.
This covers Kantian deontological ethics — specifically how duty and autonomy are reconciled through the idea that the moral law is self-legislated by pure reason, making the categorical imperative u…