What is Moral Striving?

FAIN: FT-291425-23

Mavis Louise Biss
Loyola University Maryland (Baltimore, MD 21210-2601)

Research and writing of two chapters of a philosophical book on the Kantian ethics of moral self-perfection.

My proposed project aims to directly engage the limits and complications of models of moral aspiration and moral striving presented in Kant’s moral philosophy and contemporary Kantian ethics, while ultimately defending a version of the Kantian duty of moral self-perfection. I plan for my book What is Moral Striving? to consist of six main chapters, under the following headings: (1) “Good Enough?”, (2) “Dealing with Imperfection”, (3) “Striving in Relation”, (4) “Misguided Moral Striving”, (5) “The Limits of Striving”, (6) “Sources of Hope and Resolve.” I am seeking NEH support for the completion of chapters 2 and 3 because these are parts of the project that I have already partially drafted and that I am confident that I could complete in a two-month period.