As many of you may already be aware, the 14th International Kant-Congress will take place in Bonn in 2024.

(12) Kant on Means, Ends, and Trolleys

Meeting date(s): September 6-7, 2024

Meeting place: Bonn

The conference is co-organized and hosted by the research network Using People Well, Treating People Badly (https://sites.google.com/view/usingpeoplewell) and Digitales Kant-Zentrum NRW (https://kant-zentrum-nrw.de). It will take place right before the 14th International Kant Congress in Bonn. If you plan to attend the congress, please consider arriving early for the conference.

The conference will follow a two-fold structure: On the first day, we will discuss Kant’s thoughts on treating people as mere means vs. ends in themselves, instrumentalization, and the realm of ends. On the second day, we will explore Kantian approaches to the trolley-problem.

September 6 (9 am – 6 pm): Means and Ends

• Melissa Fahmy: Exploitation and Mere Means Use
• Laura Papish: Our Shared Humanity and Exit from the State of Nature
• Corinna Mieth und Martin Sticker: Beyond Non-Instrumentalization: Negative Ends, Mere Things and Mere Enemies
• Garrath Williams: Using People as Not-Mere-Means: the Importance of Equity

September 7 (9 am – 6 pm): Trolleys

• Samuel Kahn: Kantian Trolleyology

• Samuel Kerstein: Out of the Loop 
• Pauline Kleingeld: Was Kant on the Right Track?
• Elke E. Schmidt: Kant’s Argument Not to Turn the Trolley

Additional information:

Organizers: Larissa Berger, Corinna Mieth, Elke E. Schmidt, Dieter Schönecker, and Martin Sticker.  If you plan to attend the conference, please contact Larissa Berger (larissa.berger@uni-siegen.de).