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In Reply to: Renaissance Humanism and Manifest Destiny? posted by Julie Hoffer on February 10, 1999 at 18:00:55:

You are right! Often people can have a great grasp on morality, but it is often tainted by their exstenision of it.

For example, Immanual Kant had a decent moral theory called the Catagorigal Imperative-(Baiscally, treat people as ends, and never merely as means to an end.) This moral theroy seems to be O.K....but there is a catch. Morality only applies, according to Kant, to those who have rational agency. If you deny a group rational agency, you are not obligated to treat them morally. So, I could calim that Native Americans are irrational and I could Kill them with out commiting a immoral act. This should not be surprising, small minded people have often claimed that minority groups and women are irrational. They use this as an exscuse for their oppressive actions.

Now look at the Renaissance. They had a great theory on Humanism, they just had a POOR definition of what a human is!

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• Re: Renaissance Humanism and Manifest Destiny? Lucas Kirby 11:11:02 2/11/99 (0)

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: You are right! Often people can have a great grasp on morality, but it is often tainted by their exstenision of it. : For example, Immanual Kant had a decent moral theory called the Catagorigal Imperative-(Baiscally, treat people as ends, and never merely as means to an end.) This moral theroy seems to be O.K....but there is a catch. Morality only applies, according to Kant, to those who have rational agency. If you deny a group rational agency, you are not obligated to treat them morally. So, I could calim that Native Americans are irrational and I could Kill them with out commiting a immoral act. This should not be surprising, small minded people have often claimed that minority groups and women are irrational. They use this as an exscuse for their oppressive actions. : Now look at the Renaissance. They had a great theory on Humanism, they just had a POOR definition of what a human is!

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