Is Kant’s Metaphysics Profoundly Unsatisfactory?: Critical Discussion of A. W. Moore’s Critique of Kant

In his recent book, The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics, Adrian W. Moore takes Kant to play a crucial role in the evolution of modern philosophy; yet, for him, Kant’s metaphysics is ultimately and profoundly unsatisfactory. In this article, I examine several of Moore’s objections and provide replies. My claim is that Moore’s reading points to fundamental issues, yet these are not issues of Kant’s transcendental idealism, but of the traditional idealism his view has often been taken to represent

Toleration and pragmatism: themes from the work of John Horton

John Horton’s work has been particularly influential in debates on specific topics related to toleration, political obligation, modus vivendi and political realism. More recently, he has synthesised these views in the form of a distinctive position in political philosophy, a position that has the potential to question much of the received wisdom in the field. The papers of this special issue engage with some of the most fundamental issues of Horton’s account, more exactly, the related issues of toleration and modus vivendi, Horton’s account of associative obligations, with a focus on the methodological assumptions which underpin his position more generally, and the metaphysical presuppositions of his account, in particular, the presupposition of contingency. I offer brief presentations of the papers in the special issue and of the ways they link with each other. In the discussion of the papers by Forst, Newey, Jones, Weale and Mendus, the emphasis will be on those arguments which question Horton’s position. Horton’s paper will then be presented with a focus on possible responses to these challenges. I will conclude with several remarks on an unexpected continuity between Horton’s realist view and a view realists usually criticise as idealising, namely, John Rawls’s theory of justice as fairness

Right's Complex Relation to Ethics in Kant: the limits of Independentism

The recent literature on the relation in Kant between duties of right and duties of virtue is dominated by a debate on whether duties of right can be derived from duties of virtue. According to one important argument, there is a tension or even a paradox in Kant between various claims concerning juridical norms, a paradox which can best be solved by assuming an “Independentist” position, that is, the view that the Universal Principle of Right is independent from the Categorical Imperative and, hence, that duties of right are normatively independent from duties of virtue. My claim in this paper is that the paradox which supports the independentist reading affects Kant’s claims only when the focus is on the subjective validity of duties. Once the focus is changed to objective validity, with which Kant is actually concerned, the paradox is dissolved and the Universal Principle of Right can appear as normatively dependent on the Categorical Imperative. In other words, in this paper, I argue that the scope of the paradox of juridical norms is confined to a specific focus and independentism (the view that duties of right are independent from duties of virtue) is confined in a similar way. Hence, the complexity of Kant’s account makes it possible for him to accommodate both independentist and dependentist views of the relation between right and virtue

Dignity, Law and Value: Enriching Sensen's Strong Priority Account

According to Oliver Sensen’s book, Kant on Human Dignity, the notion of dignity which can be found in the Kantian corpus is fundamentally different from the notion that gains currency in politics-related contexts today, namely, dignity as a value inherent in human beings, a value that commands respect. According to Sensen, Kant’s ethics makes it impossible for a value to be the foundation of a moral requirement; instead, Kant regards value as a prescription of reason, a prescription given by the moral law. Values are normatively secondary and determined by moral laws – call this the Strong Priority Thesis (SPT) of the moral law over values. In this paper, I formulate several objections to Sensen’s SPT and I offer the Weaker Priority Thesis (WPT) as a philosophically and exegetically more compelling account of Kant’s view. The WPT interprets Kant as advancing a more complex account of the relation between moral law, values and dignity than Sensen’s SPT; moreover, I argue that, on the basis of the WPT, Kant’s account becomes sufficiently complex to incorporate also the SP

Kant on the Relation Between Duties of Virtue and Duties of Right: Introduction

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Study of the railway vehicle suspension using the multibody method

The article presents a mathematical model for the study of a passenger coach hunting motion using the multibody approach. The model comprises the lateral displacement, rolling and yawing motions for the main constitutive elements: axles, bogies and case. The equation system is written applying energetic methods. The forced vibrations determined by the irregular profile of the tracks are considered. The wheel – rail contact forces are expressed using the creepage coefficients established according to Kalker's linear theory. The equations system is solved through numeric methods using specialized calculus programs. The response of the system – passenger coach on a tangent track, the critical speed and the influence of the constructive characteristics of the coach on its performances are determined

A magneto rheological hybrid damper for railway vehicles suspensions

High speed railway vehicles features a specific lateral oscillation resulting from the coupled lateral displacement and yaw of the wheelset which leads to a sinusoid movement of the wheelset along the track, transferred to the entire vehicle. The amplitude of this oscillation is strongly dependant on vehicle’s velocity. Over a certain value, namely the critical speed, the instability phenomenon so-called hunting occurs. To raise the vehicle’s critical speed different designs of the suspension all leading to a much stiffer vehicle can be envisaged. Different simulations prove that a stiffer central suspension will decrease the passenger’s comfort in terms of lateral accelerations of the carboy. The authors propose a semi-active magneto rheological suspension to improve the vehicle’s comfort at high speeds. The suspension has as executive elements hybrid magneto rheological dampers operating under sequential control strategy type balance logic. Using an original mathematical model for the lateral dynamics of the vehicle the responses of the system with passive and semi-active suspensions are simulated. It is shown that the semi-active suspension can improve the vehicle performances