THE PROBLEM OF INFANTICIDE IN THE METAPHYSICS OF MORALS

Jelena Govedarica

doi:10.2298/FID250618006G

Authors

Jelena Govedarica Research Associate, Institute for Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2298/FID250618006G

Keywords:

women, gender differences, honor of one’s sex, premarital intercourse, state of nature, right of necessity, law of retribution, death penalty, Beccaria, legislative reforms

Abstract

In his discussion of the state’s right to punish in The Metaphysics of Morals,
Kant appears to claim that an unmarried woman who kills her newborn
in order to preserve the “honor of her sex” finds herself in a state of
nature. Consequently, the state cannot punish her in the same manner
as it punishes other murderers. Nevertheless, at the end of the paragraph,
he concludes that infanticide, like any other form of murder, must be
punished by death, even if public opinion considers this punishment
unjust so long as the legislation remains “barbaric and undeveloped.” In
this paper, I claim that Kant at no point advocates a punishment lighter
than the death penalty. I further argue that the implications of the
metaphor of the state of nature, as well as the analogy between infanticide
and the right of necessity, render Kant’s argument internally contradictory.
For this reason, the problematic parts of the text should be read as views
Kant attributes to Beccaria, rather than endorses himself. Thus, the entire
paragraph is best understood as a continuation of Kant’s explicit polemic
with Beccaria concerning the legitimacy of the death penalty.

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