Description:

"Please join the Global Theory Workshop as they host Pascal Brixel, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University.

Why is it presumptively morally bad to coerce others by means of threats? Kantians answer that coercion compromises autonomy, by somehow usurping the authority of the agent’s own practical reason in determining her action. But it is surprisingly difficult to make sense of this natural thought. After all, even when I hand over my wallet to a mugger to avoid being shot, I make a reasoned decision based on what I myself think will best serve my own ends in the circumstances. In what sense is my action not autonomous?
 
I defend a version of the Kantian view in the face of this difficulty. Unlike traditional Kantians, however, I begin by considering what coercive threats and mere offers of reward have in common and what distinguishes them both from other forms of influence such as ordinary rational persuasion and warnings. Both threats and offers are species of incentivization, which essentially involves an exercise of control over someone’s access to a good, and thus an exercise of power over that person, for the purpose of exercising control over their conduct. I argue that this form of exercise of power amounts to an attempt to undermine another’s autonomy by undermining the independence of their practical reason. From a Kantian point of view, therefore, incentivization in general is prima facie morally problematic. I show that this view is compatible with a plausible account of why coercive threats are especially bad compared with other forms of incentivization.

Pascal Brixel is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University. Brixel is a moral and political philosopher, whose work is primarily about freedom, work, and capitalism. Currently, Brixel is developing a theory of freedom based on the idea that free activity must be intrinsically rather than extrinsically motivated. Brixel approaches these topics in part through an engagement with various historical figures, including Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, and especially Marx."