Is there any moral obligation to improve
oneself, to foster and develop various capacities in oneself? From a broadly
Kantian point of view, Self-Improvement defends the view that there is such an
obligation and that it is an obligation that each person owes to him or herself.
The defence addresses a range of arguments philosophers have mobilized against
this idea, including the argument that it is impossible to owe anything to
yourself, and the view that an obligation to improve onself is overly
'moralistic'. Robert N. Johnson argues against Kantian universalization
arguments for the duty of self-improvement, as well as arguments that bottom out
in a supposed value humanity has. At the same time, he defends a position based
on the notion that self- and other-respecting agents would, under the right
circumstances, accept the principle of self-improvement and would leave it up to
each to be the person to whom this duty is owed.
