Using people well, treating people badly: Towards a Kantian Realm of Ends and Means

Our project develops a new understanding of a core requirement of Kant's moral and political philosophy: that we should respect people as ends in themselves and never use them merely as a means or instrumentalize them. We will draw attention to a practical dimension of Kant's "realm of ends" that has largely escaped attention. Kant writes that the principles of this "realm" must relate people "as ends and means" (IV:433). In other words, the Kantian ideal is a realm of ends *and means*. For people to respect one another as ends-in-themselves, they must also act as means for one another - without becoming "mere means". Kantian ethics requires us to create forms of cooperation that involve people both as "ends in themselves" and as means to one another's ends.

Our reframing of Kantian ethics is important for two reasons.

First, Kant's practical thought is one of the most powerful contenders among contemporary moral and political theories. We believe that it deserves this status - not least, because it resists an obvious danger of consequentialist ethical theories: that some people may justify using others in order to secure wider benefits. Kant's resistance to such practises is also familiar in ordinary moral discourse: it is wrong simply to "use" other people. However, this emphasis on each person's moral status needs to be accompanied by an account of how we should contribute to one another's lives. In our project we will explore how people can be "means" within social cooperation - without being mere means.

Second, alongside evils such as exploitation and instrumentalization, in today's world many people suffer because they are objects of indifference, hostility and paternalism or lack opportunities to play a useful role in social life. We will systematize these other forms of mistreatment within a broader Kantian framework by introducing new categories that do not only capture individual but also institutional forms of mistreatment. Exclusion from meaningful cooperation renders people powerless and robs them of social roles that affirm their dignity. In our daily lives, most of us do not deliberately exploit or exclude others. But we live within economic and political systems that rely on unfair labour, foster indifference, competition and hostility as well as leave people without social roles. We will develop strategies to conceptualize and address these forms of mistreatment.

Our project will deliver a better understanding of central elements of Kant's ethical theory, which will be of interest to Kantian ethicists as well as other ethical approaches. To anchor this new approach to practical perspectives, we will focus on three main examples: migration; decent work and social contributions; and climate change and duties to future generations. We will engage with a range of other disciplines, including applied ethics, legal theory, political science and sociology. We also hope to learn from the practical perspectives of activists arounds these issues.

The team consists of two UK-based investigators, Martin Sticker (University of Bristol) and Garrath Williams (Lancaster University), and two German-based investigators, Corinna Mieth and Ewa Wyrebska-Dermanovic (Ruhr-University Bochum). We will also build a network of associated junior and senior researchers in the UK, Germany, and North America for advice and discussion and implement an advisory board. This team combines expertise in ethics, political philosophy, Kant scholarship, and various fields of applied ethics.
We hope that the networks we form will outlast the project, and we believe that the project will point to new ways of understanding Kant's contribution to ethics and political thought. As part of recognising one another as members of Kant's ideal "realm of ends," we must also empower one another to act (as Kant also says) as "useful members of the world."