NonKantian

NonKantian is a shorthand used in philosophy to describe positions that are not grounded in Immanuel Kant's critical philosophy, particularly those that reject Kant's deontological framework. The term is usually applied descriptively to ethical, epistemological, or political theories that differ from Kant's approach, rather than as a single school of thought.

In ethics, nonKantian theories include consequentialism, virtue ethics, natural law, and ethical particularism, which base moral evaluation on outcomes, character, natural goods, or context rather than universal maxims and the categorical imperative.

In epistemology and metaphysics, nonKantian approaches contrast with Kant's transcendental idealism by appealing to empiricism, rationalism, or pluralist theories of knowledge that do not start from the conditions of possible experience as Kant did.

Historically, the label has been used in debates from the 18th to the 20th century to mark a divergence from Kantian synthesis or to classify thinkers such as Hume, Mill, Aristotle, or Aquinas as non-Kantian in certain respects. In contemporary philosophy, "nonKantian" is often used descriptively to denote any theory that does not subscribe to Kantian assumptions.

See also Kantianism, Kantian ethics, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, natural law, empiricism, rationalism.