I attempt first to disentangle three aspects of Kant’s distinction between perfect and imperfect duty. There is the central distinction between principles of duty contrary to that which is contradictory in conception/consistent in conception but contradictory in will. There is also a distinction between essential and non-essential duties: those which cannot, or occasionally can, be passed over consistent with the requirements of morality. Finally, there is a distinction between duties that exhibit a scalar aspect – degrees of goodness or virtue – and duties that do not. My aim is to show how these distinct considerations can be reconciled as aspects of a single distinction, and I conclude that the remarkable complexity of Kant’s perfect/imperfect distinction is actually a strength, rather than a weakness.

中文翻译：

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完美和不完美的职责：解开康德的复杂区别

我首先尝试理清康德区分完美责任和不完美责任的三个方面。与在概念上自相矛盾/在概念上一致但在意志上自相矛盾的义务原则之间存在核心区别。基本职责和非基本职责之间也有区别：那些不能或偶尔可以根据道德要求被忽略的职责。最后，表现出标量方面（善良或美德的程度）的职责与不表现出的职责之间存在区别。我的目的是展示如何将这些不同的考虑作为单一区分的各个方面进行调和，并且我得出结论，康德完美/不完美区分的显着复杂性实际上是一种优势，而不是弱点。