International Philosophical Quarterly

Volume 59, Issue 2, June 2019

Samuel Kahn
Pages 193-217

The Problem of the Kantian Line

In this paper I discuss the problem of the Kantian line. The problem arises because the locus of value in Kantian ethics is rationality, which (counter-intuitively) seems to entail that there are no duties to groups of beings like children. I argue that recent attempts to solve this problem by Wood and O’Neill overlook an important aspect of it before posing my own solution.