(BIOGRAPHY: Immanuel Kant was one of the greatest
figures in the history of metaphysics. After 1755 he taught at the Univ. of Konigsberg and
achieved wide renown through his teachings and writings. According to Kant, his reading of
David Hume woke him from his dogmatic slumber and led him to become the "critical
philosopher," synthesizing the rationalism of Leibniz and the skepticism of Hume.
Kant proposed that objective reality is known only insofar as it conforms to the essential
structure of the knowing mind. Only objects of experience, phenomena, may be known,
whereas things lying beyond experience, noumena, are unknowable, even though in some cases
we assume a priori knowledge of them. The existence of such unknowable
"things-in-themselves" can be neither confirmed nor denied, nor can they be
scientifically demonstrated. Therefore, as Kant showed in the Critique of Pure Reason
(1781), the great problems of metaphysics -- the existence of God, freedom, and
immortality -- are insoluble by scientific thought. Yet he went on to state in the
Critique of Practical Reason (1788) that morality requires belief in their existence.
Kant's Ethics centers in his categorical imperative, or absolute moral law, "Act as
if the maxim from which you act were to become through your will a universal law."
His Critique of Judgment (1790) considered the concepts of beauty and purposiveness as a
bridge between the sensible and the intelligible worlds. Kant's influence on modern
philosophy has continued to the present day. His work fostered the development of German
idealism by Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. The Neo-Kantianism of the late 19th cent.
applied his insights to the study of the physical sciences (Hermann Cohen, Ernst
Cassirer), and to the historical and cultural sciences (Heinrich Rickert); his influence
is also seen in the thought of Dilthey; in the pragmatism of John Dewey and William James;
in the theology of Schleiermacher; and in gestalt psychology.)
There's no way around it --
Kant is rough going. Here a list of terms you will encounter, to help you unpack some
difficult (but ultimately very insightful) text.
Will: that part of a person that reasons
about and decides what to do (sometimes equated with practical reason). Because of the
tie-in with reason, the activity of willing is constrained by the laws of logic. Hence if
it is impossible for two things to both be true, one cannot will both. (You can at most wish
for both).
Duty: One's duty is what one morally ought to
do. For Kant, it is not enough for one to simply act as duty demands, but (AND THIS IS
CRITICAL) that one's motivation for doing one's duty is just because it is one's duty.
(You do it because it's what you ought to do, and not because it's in your interest, or it
promotes the general happiness, etc.) All rational creatures have the same moral duty --
to act as the categorical imperative instructs. (See CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE).
Principle of the Will: the principle upon
which one acts in a given situation. (Equivalent expression: PRINCIPLE OF VOLITION).
Maxim: A general statement of the principle
upon which one acts in a given situation. If I lie to my friend to avoid harm to myself,
then the principle of my will or volition would be "It is permissible to lie to one's
friends if by lying one avoids harm to oneself." (Also called the subjective
principle of one's action).
Acting according to the conception of laws:
Humans (unlike non-rational creatures) can formulate a principle for themselves (i.e.
"Never eat anything bigger than your head") and then act according to that
principle (i.e. by never eating anything bigger than one's head). Non-rational creatures
can only act as instinct demands. This is a critical difference for Kant, for it forms the
very basis of our ability to act morally at all.
Acting out of respect for the law:
"Law" here does not refer to the statutes and codes of the written law, but the moral
law. To act out of respect for the law is to do what one ought to do (to DO ONE'S
DUTY) because one recognizes that it is what one ought to do.
Actions which are recognized as objectively
necessary are subjectively contingent: an action is objectively necessary if it is
required by duty, but subjectively contingent because whether or not we human beings do it
depends upon our imperfectly rational wills. So an objectively necessary action is objective
in that it comes from reason (which is valid for all rational agents), and necessary
insofar as reason commands it. Such actions are also subjectively contingent because they
depend upon a particular rational agent (a subject) whose will may or may not impel
her to act as reason dictates (hence everything is contingent upon her will).
Imperative: a statement or principle which
states what one ought to do, (e.g. a command). Two types:
HYPOTHETICAL -- principle which requires one to do
something only if he or she happens to desire a certain end. Example: "If you want to
lose weight, then you should go on a diet."
CATEGORICAL -- principle which requires one to
perform a certain action regardless of the ends one desires. Kant holds that there is only
one categorical imperative, and it is the supreme principle of morality. Unfortunately, he
gives us three formulations of that imperative, not all of which are equivalent.
Here they are:
1) Act only on that maxim whereby thou canst at the
same time will that it should become a universal law.
2) Act as it the maxim of thy action were to become
by thy will a universal law of nature.
3) So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own
person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, and never as a means only.
OUTLINE OF THE SELECTION:
I. The Good Will
A. The will
(understood as that faculty by which a person reasons about and decides what
to do) is the only thing that is good without qualification (i.e. is always
and everywhere to be valued and esteemed).
1. Talents of
the mind (intelligence,wit, etc.), character traits (courage, resolve,
perseverance, etc), and gifts of fortune (wealth, power, etc) all are good
or bad, depending upon the will that guides them.
B. The value of a
good will comes not from what it brings about, but is good merely for what it
is -- the ability to choose rightly.
II. Everything acts according
to laws
1. Animals act according to
their natural instincts, what we call "laws of nature".
2. Humans can act either
according to instinct, or according to principles they impose upon themselves.
a. If a person always did
what reason told him to do ("reason infallibly determined his will"), then he
would always do the right thing. Since humans don't always do what reason tells them, (our
wills are also influenced by desires) they experience the commands of reason as
constraints which we do not always follow.
b. "Command of
reason" -- when an objective principle constrains the will; the statement of
formulation of this command is an imperative.
II. The Main Types of
Imperatives
A . Hypothetical imperatives
are conditional commands; they command an action because that action is a means to
something else the will desires.
Example: "If you want to
lose weight, you ought to eat less."
1. Types of hypothetical
imperatives:
a. Problematic:
Imperative of skill; provides direction about how to go about achieving any particular
end.
b. Assertorial:
Imperative of prudence which seeks happiness. Example: "You desire happiness by
necessity of nature; therefore you ought to perform these actions."
NOTE: The force of the
"ought" in these imperatives is derived from the end they seek. Hence their
value lies not in the action they prescribe, but in the end the act aims for. Kant wants
moral imperatives to command unconditionally; their value is not dependent upon the
results they achieve, but they are good in themselves.
B. Categorical Imperatives
command one unconditionally. The goodness of such an action essentially depends on whether
the agent's mental intention is to make his action comform to the principle that requires
it.
The single basic principle of
the CI is this:
Act only on that maxim
whereby thou canst at the same time will that it should become a universal law.
MAXIM: A general
statement of the principle upon which one acts in a given situation. If I lie to my friend
to get myself out of a jam, the principle of my volition (will) would be "It is
permissible to lie to one's friends if by lying one avoids harm to oneself."
III. Examples of the CI in
action:
A. Perfect duties are duties
that it would be immoral not to do; imperfect duties are duties that would be meritorious
to do, but not immoral not to do.
1. Another method of
determining perfect from imperfect is to ask yourself two questions:
a) Can I conceive of a world in which everyone follows this
principle? (If no, then
we have a perfect duty, i.e. we cannot act upon the maxim in question. If yes, go to (b).)
b) Would I be willing to live in such a world? If no, then we have an imperfect duty not to act
upon the maxim in question. If yes, then maxim harmonizes with CI, and hence commands
categorically.
III. Rationality as an
objective end
A. Objects of desire have
conditional value.
1. They have value only if we
possess the desire for them; no desire, no value.
a. Neither is the desire
itself valuable, for all rational creatures would like to be free of them.
B. Rational beings have
unconditional value.
1. Non-rational creatures are
called things because they have only relative value. They may be used as means to an end.
2. Rational creatures are
called persons because they are ends in themselves. They may not be used as simply as a
means.
This is why the categorical
imperative binds us unconditionally; unlike hypothetical imperatives, whose ends have
value only if one values that end (conditional worth), categorical imperatives (which deal
with persons) embody an end that has absolute or unconditional worth.
