Might Beauty Bolster the Moral Argument for God?

Abstract John Hare argues that Kant offers an aesthetic argument for God’s existence that shares premises with his famous moral argument. Karl Ameriks demurs, expressing skepticism that this is so. This Appendix stakes out an intermediate position, arguing that the resources of Kant provide ingredients for an aesthetic argument, but one distinctly less than a transcendental argument for God or an entailment relation. And such an argument, for its resonances with the moral argument(s), can work well in tandem with it (them), a fact not surprising at all if Kant was right that beauty—in accordance with an ancient Greek tradition—exists in close organic relation to the good. This Appendix also argues that the sea change in Kant studies over the last decade or so should help us see that Kant is an ally, rather than foe, to aesthetic theodicists.