Using people well, treating people badly: Towards a Kantian Realm of Ends and Means

我们的项目对康德的道德和政治哲学的一个核心要求有了新的理解：我们应该把人作为目的来尊重，而不是仅仅把他们作为一种手段或使他们成为工具。我们将把注意力引向康德“目的王国”的一个实际层面，这个层面在很大程度上没有引起人们的注意。康德写道，这种“境界”的原则必须将人“作为目的和手段”联系在一起(IV：433)。换句话说，康德的理想是一个由目的和手段组成的王国。为了让人们把彼此作为自己的目的来尊重，他们也必须成为彼此的手段--而不是变成“纯粹的手段”。康德伦理学要求我们创造合作的形式，让人们既作为自己的目的，也作为实现彼此目的的手段。我们对康德伦理学的重塑之所以重要，有两个原因。首先，康德的实践思想是当代道德政治理论中最有力的竞争者之一。我们认为，它配得上这一地位，尤其是因为它抵制了结果主义伦理理论的一个明显危险：一些人可能会为利用其他理论来确保更广泛的利益而辩护。康德对这种做法的抵制在普通的道德话语中也是常见的：简单地“利用”他人是错误的。然而，这种对每个人道德地位的强调需要伴随着我们应该如何为彼此的生活做出贡献的说明。在我们的项目中，我们将探索人们如何在社会合作中成为“手段”--而不仅仅是手段。其次，除了剥削和工具化等罪恶之外，在当今世界，许多人遭受痛苦，因为他们是冷漠、敌视和家长式作风的对象，或者缺乏在社会生活中发挥有用作用的机会。我们将在更广泛的康德框架内将这些其他形式的虐待系统化，引入新的类别，不仅涵盖个人形式的虐待，而且还包括制度形式的虐待。排除在有意义的合作之外会使人们变得无能为力，并剥夺他们确认其尊严的社会角色。在日常生活中，我们大多数人并不刻意剥削或排斥他人。但我们生活在经济和政治体系中，依赖不公平的劳工，助长冷漠、竞争和敌意，并让人们失去社会角色。我们将制定策略来概念化和解决这些形式的虐待。我们的项目将更好地理解康德伦理理论的核心要素，这将是康德伦理学家以及其他伦理方法感兴趣的。为了使这一新办法具有实际意义，我们将侧重于三个主要例子：移徙；体面工作和社会贡献；气候变化和对子孙后代的责任。我们将与一系列其他学科接触，包括应用伦理学、法律理论、政治学和社会学。我们还希望从活动家在这些问题上的实际观点中学习。该团队由两名驻英国的调查人员Martin Sticker(布里斯托尔大学)和Garrath Williams(兰开斯特大学)，以及两名驻德国的调查人员Corinna Mieth和Ewa Wyrebska-Dermanovic(鲁尔-波鸿大学)组成。我们还将在英国、德国和北美建立一个由相关初级和高级研究人员组成的网络，以便提供建议和进行讨论，并建立一个顾问委员会。这个团队结合了伦理学、政治哲学、康德学术和应用伦理学的各个领域的专业知识。我们希望我们形成的网络将比该项目持续时间更长，我们相信该项目将为理解康德对伦理和政治思想的贡献提供新的途径。作为承认彼此是康德理想的“目的王国”成员的一部分，我们还必须相互赋权，以充当(正如康德也说的)“世界上有用的成员”。

Our project develops a new understanding of a core requirement of Kant's moral and political philosophy: that we should respect people as ends in themselves and never use them merely as a means or instrumentalize them. We will draw attention to a practical dimension of Kant's "realm of ends" that has largely escaped attention. Kant writes that the principles of this "realm" must relate people "as ends and means" (IV:433). In other words, the Kantian ideal is a realm of ends *and means*. For people to respect one another as ends-in-themselves, they must also act as means for one another - without becoming "mere means". Kantian ethics requires us to create forms of cooperation that involve people both as "ends in themselves" and as means to one another's ends. Our reframing of Kantian ethics is important for two reasons. First, Kant's practical thought is one of the most powerful contenders among contemporary moral and political theories. We believe that it deserves this status - not least, because it resists an obvious danger of consequentialist ethical theories: that some people may justify using others in order to secure wider benefits. Kant's resistance to such practises is also familiar in ordinary moral discourse: it is wrong simply to "use" other people. However, this emphasis on each person's moral status needs to be accompanied by an account of how we should contribute to one another's lives. In our project we will explore how people can be "means" within social cooperation - without being mere means. Second, alongside evils such as exploitation and instrumentalization, in today's world many people suffer because they are objects of indifference, hostility and paternalism or lack opportunities to play a useful role in social life. We will systematize these other forms of mistreatment within a broader Kantian framework by introducing new categories that do not only capture individual but also institutional forms of mistreatment. Exclusion from meaningful cooperation renders people powerless and robs them of social roles that affirm their dignity. In our daily lives, most of us do not deliberately exploit or exclude others. But we live within economic and political systems that rely on unfair labour, foster indifference, competition and hostility as well as leave people without social roles. We will develop strategies to conceptualize and address these forms of mistreatment.Our project will deliver a better understanding of central elements of Kant's ethical theory, which will be of interest to Kantian ethicists as well as other ethical approaches. To anchor this new approach to practical perspectives, we will focus on three main examples: migration; decent work and social contributions; and climate change and duties to future generations. We will engage with a range of other disciplines, including applied ethics, legal theory, political science and sociology. We also hope to learn from the practical perspectives of activists arounds these issues.The team consists of two UK-based investigators, Martin Sticker (University of Bristol) and Garrath Williams (Lancaster University), and two German-based investigators, Corinna Mieth and Ewa Wyrebska-Dermanovic (Ruhr-University Bochum). We will also build a network of associated junior and senior researchers in the UK, Germany, and North America for advice and discussion and implement an advisory board. This team combines expertise in ethics, political philosophy, Kant scholarship, and various fields of applied ethics. We hope that the networks we form will outlast the project, and we believe that the project will point to new ways of understanding Kant's contribution to ethics and political thought. As part of recognising one another as members of Kant's ideal "realm of ends," we must also empower one another to act (as Kant also says) as "useful members of the world."