Evil Together: The Social Dimensions of Kantian Vice

Within Kant’s moral framework, vice is a major threat. It impedes our moral progress as individuals and as communities. We thus require strategies for fighting vice in ourselves and in our social environments. The individual and social dimensions of Kantian vice, however, are importantly interrelated. Whether I can succeed in fending off vice in myself depends not just on my own efforts, but also on the social worlds I inhabit. Some social environments are more conducive to vice than others. I argue that successful vice-fighting strategies must be communal undertakings, in which we help each other overcome our own worst impulses and maintain hope in the possibility of moral progress.