Insofar as we take ourselves to be exercising our free will, Kant argues, we have to consider ourselves from the perspective of the world of understanding. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals | Section 2 : Transition from Popular Moral Philosophy to Metaphysics of Morals | Summary Share. Someone who wants to learn to play the violin should practice the correct finger placements. Yet we may take heart in the fact that all rational beings may recognize that reason imposes clear moral demands. However, the fact that we see ourselves as often falling short of what morality demands of us indicates we have some functional concept of the moral law. More specifically, it is through one's will that the moral law is "given." Finally, Kant remarks that whilst he would like to be able to explain how morality ends up motivating us, his theory is unable to do so. Immanuel Kant. As such, it has absolute value, to which all other values are relative, and for which no other values can be substituted. [citation needed] His criticism is an attempt to prove, among other things, that actions are not moral when they are performed solely from duty. Nothing can be compared to that which is defined only by itself and not in comparison to anything else. The man who wishes to substitute his talents for his own happiness selfishly uses himself as a mere means. She gives it to you and you hate it. Literary and Philosophical Essays. Now grandma is going to think she knits beautiful sweaters and might knit it for someone who wont care about it. By this, Kant means that the moral worth of an act depends not on its consequences, intended or real, but on the principle acted upon. At this point Kant has given us a picture of what a universal and necessary law would look like should it exist. But it cannot be that a law of nature kills by the very same principle (self-love) that it promotes life. Imagine it is your birthday and your grandmother knits you a sweater. Every rational being that cannot act except “under the idea of freedom” is actually free, for it cannot ascribe any other cause of its actions except to itself. Going back to the previous examples, that means a man cannot commit suicide because he would kill himself as a means of preserving what is left of his happiness. Kant then gives a series of examples to test his first categorical imperative. Autonomy is opposed to heteronomy, which consists of having one's will determined by forces alien to it. So when you lie to grandma about the sweater you do not like, you are not respecting her as a human. A “command” is the presentation of an objective principle, and the formula of that is an imperative (30). "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals Study Guide." Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. [ii] The search for the supreme principle of morality—the antidote to confusion in the moral sphere—will occupy Kant for the first two chapters of the Groundwork. Copyright © 2016. Thus, only rational creatures have practical reason. [v] The shopkeeper treats his customer fairly, but because it is in his prudent self-interest to do so, in order to preserve his reputation, we cannot assume that he is motivated by duty, and thus the shopkeeper's action cannot be said to have moral worth. According to Kant, the categorical imperative is possible because, whilst we can be thought of as members of both of these worlds (understanding and appearance), it is the world of understanding that “contains the ground of the world of sense [appearance] and so too of its laws.” What this means is that the world of understanding is more fundamental than, or ‘grounds’, the world of sense. [I really don’t understand the logic in the third and fourth examples, in both sections]. That duty is not to lie. What guides the will in those matters is inclination. Kant says “… there is an imperative which commands a certain conduct immediately, without having as its a condition any other purpose to be attained by it. Examples would include statements like: Someone who wants to arrive on campus at a specific time should use the bus as the vehicle to achieve that goal. Kant writes that the pure expression of the law necessarily has a power over the heart stronger than all other forces because one thinks only of reason, not a mixture of reason and incentive (28). How can you tell your grandmother that you don’t like it when she asks? Both skill and prudence can be gotten out of or modified if the end to be achieved is changed. Nearly every action we observe can be attributed to some motive other than pure duty. Therefore, a moral law could never rest on hypothetical imperatives, which only apply if one adopts some particular end. According to Kant, we need laws to be able to act. A person in need of money has a narrow, or perfect, duty to others. Given that the moral law, if it exists, is universal and necessary, the only appropriate means to investigate it is through a priori rational reflection. Furthermore, we should recognize that it would be impossible for us to derive universal moral laws from specific events and experiences; since all events are contingent upon specific circumstances, none of our experiences can be a source of moral principles that apply in all cases and all circumstances. Because morality is when humans are treated as ends, that is the only condition for dignity (no equivalence to rational beings). For example, suppose a person in need of money makes it his or her maxim to attain a loan by making a false promise to pay it back. As rational beings, people make choices that alter their own lives and the lives of others. Laws (or commands), by definition, apply universally. Imagine it is your birthday and your grandmother knits you a sweater. Kant's Metaphysics of Morals is a reasoned approach to morality that stretches outside the bounds of the empirical and into the world, or pure reason. Physics and ethics, on the other hand, deal with particular objects: physics is concerned with the laws of nature, ethics with the laws of freedom. Kant opens this section by noting the objection that it cannot be shown that man has ever acted solely in accordance with duty. An action not based on some sort of law would be arbitrary and not the sort of thing that we could call the result of willing. Web. Kant argues that understanding maxims from the point of view of reason means that one can avoid the bias of always thinking himself the exception. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment? In essence, Kant's remarks in the preface prepare the reader for the thrust of the ideas he goes on to develop in the Groundwork. one may exclaim. If you consider yourself as part of the world of appearances, then you cannot think of yourself as having a will that brings things about. This page was last edited on 23 September 2020, at 03:26. What is ethical must be done for the sake of the law, not merely be the same as the law because then it would be mere coincidence (it wouldn’t matter if I happen to not lie — I have to not lie because I recognize the ethical demand on me). First, one might encounter a scenario in which one's proposed maxim would become impossible in a world in which it is universalized. If you are treating someone as such, you are taking away their freedom and ability to reason.

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