Sarah Holtman
· ProfessorVerifiedUniversity of Minnesota · Philosophy
Active 1995–2025
About
Sarah Holtman is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on ethics, political philosophy, and philosophy of law. She is involved in teaching and scholarly activities related to these areas, contributing to the academic community through her expertise and leadership within the department.
Research topics
- Philosophy
- Epistemology
- Political Science
- Sociology
- Cognitive science
- Psychology
- Law
Selected publications
Civic Action, Idealization, and Kantian Citizenship
2025-03-05
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingThis chapter challenges popular portrayals of the Kantian citizen: (1) as rigidly subservient to rules that prohibit lies and political violence, even when violation of these will predictably thwart injustice; and (2) as embodying ideals of freedom, equality, and independence that most persons fail to realize. Toward a conception of the citizen that better fits both Kant’s texts and our circumstances, the chapter first considers the famous essay on the right to lie, which apparently provides good reason to accept both the popular gloss and significant worries that go with it. That essay’s seeming position notwithstanding, it contends, careful analysis of more theoretically rigorous discussions, principally in Kant’s Rechtslehre, suggest a picture both friendlier to citizen autonomy and less idealized than the popular interpretation would have it. Together with an illuminating historical example, this analysis, in turn, supports an alternative reading of Kant’s discussion of the right to lie and a substantially enriched understanding of Kantian citizenship. While Kant himself might not have accepted all the implications drawn from this inquiry, the chapter argues, these are both consistent with central elements of his political theory and very much in the spirit of a thoughtful interpretation of his texts.
Kant, Philosophy, and the Public
De Gruyter eBooks · 2024
1st authorCorresponding- Epistemology
- Philosophy
- Cognitive science
Focusing on Kant's practical philosophy, I consider here how we best conceive of the public audiences for philosophical works and take up four categories particularly worth addressing. These are: fellow philosophers; fellow academics; non-academics in positions of power or influence; and the public at large. I consider how Kant's works addressed the first three of these audiences in his own time, and reflect on an instance where the decision to publish his views met with a significant warning. At the end, I take up Kant's crucial fourth audience, the general public, both in his time and in our own.
2021-11-23
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingImmanuel Kant famously urges that, in making day-to-day moral decisions, we should take up the perspective of legislators for a so-called kingdom of ends. But the perspective of the kingdom of ends arguably fails adequately to appreciate or accommodate the moral significance of some of the very human traits and propensities most likely to strengthen our moral judgment and resolve in difficult real-world conditions. With some help from Lillian Hellman (playwright, McCarthy-era critic, social-norm challenger and innovative memoirist), I consider this potential failing. My analysis explores the connections among Kant’s legislative ideal, the Kantian conception of dignity, the aim of enlightenment and the account of character as a way of thinking. It emphasizes the importance of moral aspiration for a sound reading of Kant’s work and a wise approach to our moral circumstances.
Moral Foundations, Shared Civic Projects and Rossi’s Kant
Philosophia · 2021 · 1 citations
1st authorCorresponding- Sociology
- Epistemology
- Political Science
Justice, Beneficence and Global Poverty: Kantian Insights
2021-10-25
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingJustice, Citizenship and the Kingdom of Ends
University of Wales Press eBooks · 2020-02-01 · 1 citations
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingKant on Civil Society and Welfare
Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2018-10-24 · 53 citations
book1st authorCorrespondingWhat justifies state-sponsored supports for individual welfare within a Kantian political system, as well as the purpose and extent of such supports and the form they may take, are vexed questions. This Element characterizes and assesses main contenders (including minimalist and middle-ground accounts) by examining the competing interpretations of Kant's larger political theory that found their social welfare claims. It then develops and defends an alternative based in civic respect. This emphasizes the perspective and institutional commitments Kant's model of citizenship entails and what is required to respect each as both a person and a participant in joint governance.
2018-10-31 · 2 citations
book-chapter1st authorCorresponding2018-07-26 · 2 citations
book1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This chapter asks what stance is morally appropriate as we consider when, whether, and how to assist persons experiencing physical, emotional, or intellectual disability. Appealing to a variety of intelligent and observant thinkers for inspiration (Ralph Barton Perry, Helen Keller, and Immanuel Kant), it argues that one important aspect of such a stance is an attitude of reciprocal beneficence. This has three central aspects: a perspective of fellowship acknowledging the disabled and the currently able as members of the community of vulnerable human agents; a developed sympathy attuned to gaps in knowledge and failures of imagination and analogy; and a readiness to show gratitude or appreciation for what the currently disabled may teach about the vulnerable moral agency we share. The argument takes initial inspiration from Perry but owes most to its roots in Kantian moral and political theory. It also owes much to wise and insightful enrichments due to Keller.
Kant, Ideal Theory, and the Justice of Exclusionary Zoning *
2017-05-15
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingIn this chapter, by an ideal theory, the author means one that assumes, in enunciating principles of justice, that human beings and the world are both simpler and better than we know them to be. Applying Immanuel Kant’s theory of justice to the problem of exclusionary zoning, the author explores how ideal theory might fulfill its promise. The author develops two intermediate Kantian principles that will augment the theory in a way that can guide the thinking about exclusionary zoning. The principle of independence identifies exclusionary zoning ordinances as likely instances of injustice because they perpetuate and compound, rather than remedying, significant impingements on independence brought on by privations of fundamental interests. Evaluating the dilemma as a case of preexisting injustice will help bring out the reason that exclusionary zoning ordinances themselves, or some components of them.
Frequent coauthors
- 1 shared
Brian H. Bix
University of Minnesota
- 1 shared
McKnight Fellowship
- 1 shared
Edna Ullmann‐Margalit
- 1 shared
Anita Wallace
- 1 shared
Cass R. Sunstein
- 1 shared
Samuel Fleischacker
University of Illinois System
- 1 shared
Alan C. Love
- 1 shared
John Martin Fischer
University of California, Riverside
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