I ought never to act except in such a way that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law. 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. This section takes up the results of the analyses in Section 2. Rational beings may align their "will" either with the objective laws of reason and morality or with subjective needs and interests. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals |. It is also not possible to help every person in need at every moment, for example, so one cannot be obligated to attempt to do so. There, Kant derived from an analysis of the common conception of duty the definition that "duty is the necessity of an action from respect for the law." To be compelled to act by an external force, on the other hand, is to be caused to act by something other than oneself. First, one might encounter a scenario in which one's proposed maxim would become impossible in a world in which it is universalized. If nature's creatures are so purposed, Kant thinks their capacity to reason would certainly not serve a purpose of self-preservation or achievement of happiness, which are better served by their natural inclinations. [citation needed] One interpretation asserts that the missing proposition is that an act has moral worth only when its agent is motivated by respect for the law, as in the case of the man who preserves his life only from duty. In the first, Kant establishes the notion that an individual should have a general method for how to engage in moral thinking; that is, he or she should have common rational moral cognition. Collectively, persons constitute a moral community—kingdom of ends. Good will is good not because of what it accomplishes, but through the act of willing in itself. Nature would have limited man’s reason from the realm of happiness and entrusted man’s happiness to instinct alone. This, in turn, suggests that these principles are ones to which a rational being could consent. Laws (or commands), by definition, apply universally. Kant believes that we have perfect and imperfect duties both to ourselves and to others. You mention many things from Kant’s categorical imperative to his criticism of consequentialism, making this a very through post. Chapter 3Final step from the metaphysic of morals to the critical examination of pure practical reason. Notice, however, that this law is only binding on the person who wants to qualify for nationals in ultimate frisbee. The categorical imperative holds for all rational agents, regardless of whatever varying ends a person may have. This is a human being, which exists only as an end, in contrast to things which have a subjective value to us. This is Kant’s first proposition: an action has moral worth only if it is done out of duty. It is generally recognized that actions are not truly moral if they are performed in conformity with duty but not for the sake of duty alone. 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. "Hypothetical imperatives" command that a particular action is necessary as a means to some purpose, such as the attainment of personal happiness. As lawgivers, human beings command themselves to act from respect for themselves as moral agents. If you are treating someone as an end in themselves, one can see that and be sure that they arent being used. One is that it is reciprocal. A free will is one that has the power to bring about its own actions in a way that is distinct from the way that normal laws of nature cause things to happen. Instead, Kant is talking about what reason commands ought to happen (prescriptive): duty is prior to all experience because it comes a priori through reason. Section II: Transition from popular moral philosophy to the metaphysics of morals. Human dignity, unlike that of other things, is inherently valuable. These formulations show how moral law is applied to maxims, that is, to personal rules for acting. 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. Because a free will is not merely pushed around by external forces, external forces do not provide laws for a free will. If I have no interest in ice cream, the imperative does not apply to me. Since an action in accordance from duty must be stripped of all inclination (subjective desires), then what is left is the purely objective, which is the law. At this point Kant has given us a picture of what a universal and necessary law would look like should it exist. This undertaking is more complicated in the case of indeterminate objectives like happiness, where it is difficult to know what particular actions will bring about the goal. It is not your favorite color, it itches and it is way too big. A world in which no one offered aid would be a world in which the wealthy and selfish were members—and a world in which they would, at one point, require help they would not receive. Just as one cannot universalize the maxim that allows lying promises, because they are self-defeating, so also one cannot universalize the maxim not to offer aid to those in need. Indeed, the attempt of the wealthy person to universalize the maxim not to help anyone, but instead pursue only his own happiness, fails. The claims do not conflict because they have different targets. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Kant observes that humans are quite good at deceiving themselves when it comes to evaluating their motiva… The formula of a universal law reflects several important features. A person has a wide, or imperfect, duty to others: it is to be beneficent. Thus, it must be empirical and there cannot be a command of happiness. This means you are not recognizing their a rational being and instead using them as a tool. People may appear to act in a certain way because of a pure demand of reason, yet we can never be sure that they do not have some circumstantial interest or ulterior motive other than a pure categorical imperative. In a similar vein, we often desire intelligence and take it to be good, but we certainly would not take the intelligence of an evil genius to be good. [citation needed], [A]n action from duty has its moral worth not in the purpose to be attained by it but in the maxim in accordance with which it is decided upon, and therefore does not depend upon the realization of the object of the action but merely upon the principle of volition in accordance with which the action is done without regard for any object of the faculty of desire.”. The Groundwork is broken into a preface, followed by three sections. For example, if a person wants to qualify for nationals in ultimate frisbee, he will recognize and consult the rules that tell him how to achieve this goal. There is only one categorical imperative, but there are variations of expression. Reason's demands may be called "imperatives." Moreover, moral deliberation and choice suggest a rational evaluation that something is good. Kant posits that there are two types of hypothetical imperative—rules of skill and counsels of prudence.