Deontological Restrictions and the Self/Other Asymmetry

This paper offers a partial justification of so‐called “deontological restrictions.” Specifically it defends the “self/other asymmetry,” that we are morally obligated to treat our own agency, and thus its results, as specially important. The argument rests on a picture of moral obligation of a broadly Kantian sort. In particular, it rests on the basic normative assumption that our fundamental obligations are determined by the principles which a rational being as such would follow. These include principles which it is not essential for rational beings to accept, but acceptance of which we could non‐arbitrarily attribute to them simply in their capacity as rational. Among these principles is the asymmetry mentioned above.