Kant's Moral Faith

In this work, an attempt is made to analyse Kant's concept of moral faith. Kant famously declares that human reason must deny knowledge to make room for faith. Although theoretical reason cannot offer cognition of God or proof of God's existence, practical consideration can justify a belief, at least for moral action, that there is a Wise, Benevolent, and Just Providence ordering the world. Morality requires us to set an end that theoretical reason gives us insufficient grounds to believe is attainable. We are thus threatened with an incoherence between our practical volition and our justified beliefs and assertions about the world. The only reasonable way to resolve this practical problem regarding the possibility of the highest good is to go beyond what theoretical reason can affirm about this idea and postulate to the existence of its object.

About the Author:

ARUP JYOTI SARMA is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Tripura University, Tripura, India. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, in 2010. His areas of interest include Ethics, Western Philosophy, Gadamer, and Tagorean Studies. His book 'Kant and Hegel on Is-Ought Dichotomy' was published in 2014 by Progressive Publishers, Kolkata. He has published articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals. This work is a slightly modified version of a minor research project, awarded by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi, during 2015-16.