A counterfactual telling you that your action is un-universalizeable can be informative to a deontic evaluation of an act even if you perform the act in complete secrecy. It can be informative even if etc.
Okay, I get that. But what does it inform you of? Why should one care in particular about the universalizability of one’s actions?
I don’t want to just come down to asking “Why should I be moral?”, because I already think there is no good answer to that question. But why this particular picture of morality?
I don’t have an arsenal with which to defend the universalizeability thing; I don’t use it, as I said. Kant seems to me to think that performing only universalizeable actions is a constraint on rationality; don’t ask me how he got to that—if I had to use a CI formulation I’d go with the “treat people as ends in themselves” one.
But why this particular picture of morality?
It suits some intuitions very nicely. If it doesn’t suit yours, fine; I just want people to stop trying to cram mine into boxes that are the wrong shape.
Okay, I get that. But what does it inform you of? Why should one care in particular about the universalizability of one’s actions?
I don’t want to just come down to asking “Why should I be moral?”, because I already think there is no good answer to that question. But why this particular picture of morality?
I don’t have an arsenal with which to defend the universalizeability thing; I don’t use it, as I said. Kant seems to me to think that performing only universalizeable actions is a constraint on rationality; don’t ask me how he got to that—if I had to use a CI formulation I’d go with the “treat people as ends in themselves” one.
It suits some intuitions very nicely. If it doesn’t suit yours, fine; I just want people to stop trying to cram mine into boxes that are the wrong shape.
I suppose that’s about as good as we’re going to get with moral theories!
Well, I hope I haven’t caused you too much corner-sobbing; thanks for explaining.