Conservative and revolutionary readings of the categorical imperative: The logic of desire and the logic of drive in Kant’s practical philosophy

pages: 239-263

Abstract

This paper will confront two possible conceptions of Imamanuel Kant’s practical philosophy based on two different possible understandings of categorical imperative. The first conception sees the categorical imperative as prescribing a form for the maxime under which a subject is to act if his actions are to be taken as moral. This conception is shown to be conservative as it preserves the existing moral norms of a society. This way of functioning of categorical imperative is shown to be homologuous to the logic of desiare as described by the french psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and as incapable of providing a basis for ascribing responsibility to a subject for his acts. Another conception will be offered as an alternative: on that conception the categorical imeprative prescribes a manner of willing any maxime which is shown to be analoguous to the logic of the death drive. It’s ethical and revolutionary character are elucidated towards the end of the paper. Keywords: categorical imperative, law, exception, universalised crime, desire, drive, subject