Kant on Duty
Introduction

Kant will be the culmination of two themes
traced over the ages
Introduction

Kant will be the culmination of two themes
traced over the ages

Will – the most important thing for morality
Introduction

Kant will be the culmination of two themes
traced over the ages
Will – the most important thing for morality
 Law – morality is a law-like thing

Introduction

Kant will be the culmination of two themes
traced over the ages
Will – the most important thing for morality
 Law – morality is a law-like thing


And a further modern tendency

God is not a good explanation for rights, morals, etc.
Background

Age of Reason (17th-18th C)

Enlightenment (18th C)
All problems amenable to reason
 God not a reasonable explanation
 Republicanism, democracy, liberalism.


American Revolution (1776)


Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, Constitution
French Revolution (1789)

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
Kant

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Königsberg (Kaliningrad)
1724 – 1804
Moral texts (all hard)
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785)
 Metaphysics of Morals
 Critique of Practical Reason

Kant
Critique of Practical Reason 5:162
Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and
reverence, the more often and the more steadily one reflects on them:
the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. … the first
view of a countless multitude of worlds annihilates, as it were, my
importance as an animal creature, which after it has been for a short
time provided with vital force (one knows not how) must give back to
the planet (a mere speck in the universe) the matter from which it
came. The second, on the contrary, infinitely raises my worth as an
intelligence by my personality, in which the moral law reveals to me a
life independent of animality…
Normativity
Source of
Normativity
Culture
Human
Nature
God
Reason
But morals
are universal
But Human Nature
is unreliable
But God wills
only what is good
To be moral is to
be reasonable
Types of Theory

Virtue or aretaic theories
the character of the morally good person
 Aristotle


Consequentialist or teleological theories
the consequence of the moral act
 Mill (next week)

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duty-based or deontological theories
some moral value in the potential acts themselves
 Kant

The Good Will
Groundwork 4: 393
Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of
it, which can be called good, without qualification, except a good
will. Intelligence, wit, judgement, and the other talents of the
mind, however they may be named, or courage, resolution,
perseverance, as qualities of temperament, are undoubtedly good
and desirable in many respects; but these gifts of nature may also
become extremely bad and mischievous if the will which is to
make use of them, and which, therefore constitutes what is
called character, is not good. … Thus a good will appears to
constitute the indispensable condition even of being worthy of
happiness.
The Good Will

Having a good will means having the right kind
of intentions or motives
to have a good will is to act from duty because you
think it is right
 But it is not enough just to have the right feelings –
they are an unreliable guide to duty
 We need a reliable guide to duty
 Find this in Reason

The Categorical Imperative

Imperatives are commands or orders

Hypothetical Imperatives give reasons
‘Shut the door if you want to stay warm!’
 The force of an HI depends upon the desire for the
outcome


Categorical Imperatives don’t give reasons
‘Shut the door!’ is a CI
 The force of a CI depends of being able to derive it from
a single original CI that any rational creature is bound by

The Categorical Imperative
Act only according to that maxim by which
you can at the same time will that it should
become a universal law
(Groundwork. 4:402)
In this principle a ‘maxim’ is the general subjective rule of the
particular action that you are taking
The Categorical Imperative

Application – how to judge amongst maxims
The Categorical Imperative

Application – how to judge amongst maxims

Can I tell a lie?
The Categorical Imperative

Application – how to judge amongst maxims

Can I tell a lie?

What is maxim? – ‘I may lie for my advantage’
The Categorical Imperative

Application – how to judge amongst maxims

Can I tell a lie?
What is maxim? – ‘I may lie for my advantage’
 Can it be universalised? – ‘everyone may lie’

The Categorical Imperative

Application – how to judge amongst maxims

Can I tell a lie?
What is maxim? – ‘I may lie for my advantage’
 Can it be universalised? – ‘everyone may lie’
 Can it be a law?

The Categorical Imperative

Application – how to judge amongst maxims

Can I tell a lie?
What is maxim? – ‘I may lie for my advantage’
 Can it be universalised? – ‘everyone may lie’
 Can it be a law?
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‘Lying’ depends upon a norm of truth-telling
If ‘Tell lies’ is the law then truth-telling is not the norm
So there can be no lying  There is a contradiction
It can’t be a law
The Categorical Imperative

Application – how to judge amongst maxims

Can I tell a lie?
What is maxim? – ‘I may lie for my advantage’
 Can it be universalised? – ‘everyone may lie’
 Can it be a law?






‘Lying’ depends upon a norm of truth-telling
If ‘Tell lies’ is the law then truth-telling is not the norm
So there can be no lying  There is a contradiction
It can’t be a law
Therefore I cannot tell a lie
The Principle of Ends

Values

Conditional Value is given to the means to an end
I value diamonds for what I can buy with them
 CV depends upon the desire for the end it is a means to


Unconditional Value is not given to the means to an
end
Happiness is an UV
 UV is required to create CV which we know exists

The Principle of Ends
Act in such a way that you always treat
humanity, whether in your own person or in
the person of any other, never simply as a
means, but always at the same time as an
end
(Groundwork. 4:429)
[Compare Augustine’s ‘Scale of Values’ and ‘Love thy Neighbour’ argument]
Autonomy


We rise above animal condition if we are moral
We are only free (autonomous) if we are moral
Autonomy is the will’s determination of itself
 Heteronomy is the will’s determination by outsiders

Social pressures
 Religious pressure
 Refusing to think for ourselves
 Acting on feelings

Autonomy

Autonomy is the essence of the Enlightenment
Through laziness and cowardice a large part of mankind, even after
nature has freed them from alien guidance, gladly remain immature. It
is because of laziness and cowardice that it is so easy for others to
usurp the role of guardians. It is so comfortable to be a minor! If I have
a book which provides meaning for me, a pastor who has a conscience
for me, a doctor who will judged my diet for me and so on, then I do
not need to exert myself. I do not have any need to think; if I can pay,
others will take over this tedious job for me.
Kant, What is Enlightenment?