Abstract

FLEITAS GONZALEZ, Martín. Kant and the Controversy between Constructivism and Realism. Reflections for a Kantian-constitutive Approach about Euthyphro’s dilemma. Tópicos (México) [online]. 2017, n.52, pp.117-149. ISSN 0188-6649.  https://doi.org/10.21555/top.v0i52.783.

The intense discussion between constructivists and realists regarding Kant’s assuming a “projectivist” or “detectivist” theory of value has highlighted the limits of language and of the terms employed. What we may very well call the “language of Euthyphro” does not appear to convey the full extent of the singularity of Kant´s ethics. It goes without saying that Kant elaborates both projectivist and detectivist statements and this is due to the fact that his focus on normativity contains dimensions that pertain both to constructivism and realism. In light of this, the present paper upholds the thesis that Kantian ethics assumes a “constitutivist” theory of value, which, in few words, understands that the sources of normativity and value are reflexive constructions of the agent that these involve, at the same time, and in a performative form, the realist assumption of freedom as an absolute value.

Keywords : I. Kant; sources of normativity; constructivism; realism; constitutivism.

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