Abstract

This paper argues that Kant and Fichte develop a conception of “obscuring reason.” This conception allows us to explain our reasons for immoral actions although we are not able to cognize the original ground of evil. The paper analyzes Kant's conception of rationalizing (Vernünfteln) as obscuring reason. By rationalizing, we imputably misuse our faculty of reason in order to construct a viewpoint from which we are no longer bound to the absolute demand of the moral law. Fichte draws on Kant and distinguishes three kinds of operations to obscure the moral law, namely (i) abstraction, (ii) delaying, and (iii) downgrading.