‘He Must Go!’ Emotivism as a Kantian Theory of Online Etiquette and Morality?

My project recasts old-fashioned emotivism (Ayer, Stevenson, and Hare) in a new light, namely as a theory of normative ethics pertaining to online activities and discourse. Traditionally regarded as one of the previous century’s prime exemplar of a non-cognitivist metaethics, the first part of my project tries to derive two normative-ethical implications from the aforementioned thinkers’ main arguments. Firstly, a good deal of moral and political discourse permissibly serves the purpose of expressing emotional states and attitudes. When individuals engage (anonymously) in online discussions, especially regarding political and social controversies, the main purpose often seems to be that the active contributors simply “vent” their frustration and disgust or, a bit less irritatingly, express their enthusiasm and attitude of “thumbs-uppiness” without any intention to change anybody’s minds, let alone to do the latter in a “rational” manner. Secondly, however, ethical emotivism seems committed to regarding one’s online contribution of moral and political views and judgments, as a legitimate attempt to persuade one’s audience into a certain direction. This second normative emotivist implication is more complex and controversial, because it consists in the attempt to sway the audience in a certain direction by means of influencing their emotional and attitudinal perspective and take on a particular issue. At first sight, both of these emotivist claims regarding the morality and etiquette of online behavior seem to be complete anathema to anything remotely Kantian. I want to call into question the quickness of this reaction and look into both, Kant’s moral philosophy and his legal/political thought. Especially with respect to the latter, I want to suggest that Kantian public reason leaves room for the two emotivist functions to play some legitimate and justified (though constrained) role in how a republican citizenry conducts public discourse in the digital age.