I've recently tried to read up on Kant's doctrine of "radical evil," his effort at reconciling his Enlightenment philosophy with the Christian conception of original sin. I will spare you, dear reader, any twistings and turnings on this road just now. I'll simply link you to an article by Paul Formosa, a professor at Macquarie University. Available through academia.edu Money quote (so far as I can tell). If we read Kant as offering the view that at the very moment of birth (how long after conception?) we make a free, timeless noumenal choice to adopt an evil supre me maxim , then his positi on is metaphysica lly daunting and wildly implau sible. But there is no reason to read Kant in this overtly metaphysical way. Kant only claims that such a supreme choice must be 'posited' and thus 'represented' as being present at birth. I am reminded of the following comic. Back to School
