On the Subjectivity of Kantian Moral Belief and Its Private Character

Kant’s conception of moral Belief appears to involve an inner tension; on the one hand, he ascribes to Belief the status of conviction or universal validity, while on the other he describes it as having a private, ‘only for myself’ character. This paper argues that Belief indeed encompasses both aspects and that the tension between these two dimensions is only apparent. As the paper shows, this seeming conflict can be explained by appealing to the non-epistemic character of the grounds of Belief and the distinction between the act of Believing and the content of Belief.