Overdetermination of dutiful actions occurs when dutiful actions are done from the motive of duty where the agent also has nonmoral interests in the action (Herman: 6) and according to Kant although this action might be dutiful and amiable it is still of no moral worth. For example a man who does acts of good will and gets a feeling of satisfaction from doing them is not acting morally. In the same way that a soldier saves another soldiers with only an inclination that he will get a medal is also not morally dutiful.

So how can we have Overdetermined dutiful moral actions?

Henson attempts to get around Kant's rather stark doctrine by saying that a dutiful act would have moral worth provided that respect for duty was present and would have sufficed by itself to produce the dutiful act, even though other motives were also present and might themselves have sufficed (Herman: 7). For example the brave dutiful soldier who saves one of his brothers in arms from certain death despite......

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Title: What Is The Best Way Of Accounting For The Over Determination Of Dutiful Actions?
Approximate Word Count: 1316
Approximate Pages: 6 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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