By the end of this essay I would like to prove that O’Neill’s account of Kant’s moral theory is a much easier and appropriate way of looking at things. Being good, in others words moral, means what? Kant is that the only thing without qualification that is good is the act of having a good will. The good will is the will to do the right thing and everything else (ie. money, courage etc) can be used for good or evil.
Kant’s ethical theory Kant’s ethical theory relies on the principles that the only one thing, which is good without qualification, is a good will. In Kant’s term, a good will is a will, where all taken decisions are fully determined by the Moral Law or moral demands. He states that all talents of the mind, which can include intelligence, wit, judgment, courage and others can be definitely named as good traits, however, at the same time these qualities can also become extremely bad on the condition that the will of using them is not good. Kant believed that some kinds of actions should be prohibited, such as murder, theft or lying, even though the consequences of these actions would lead to bringing more happiness than the alternative (Bonevac, 2013). According to Kant, the categorical imperative is “what makes a will good is its conformity with the moral law”.
“For Favour is the only free liking,” he says, and this is what he means by “disinterestedness.” Kant’s second moment is about “subjective universality” attached to an object. Kant describes it which is the feeling of delight it evokes, and the objective aspect in which we perceive that
Before Kant, moral philosophy was dominated by Crusius’s sense of divine morality which stipulates that the will of a person has to be in accordance with the will of God. Wolff’s notion of moral perfection adds that we should strive to procedurally achieve our sense of moral obligation to the degree that the ends or effects of a particular action are based on our ability to calculate perfection. Kant concludes that Wolff’s postulates are virtually impossible in attempting perfection in 1764 in his Prize Essay ,‘‘now I can with little effort show how I became convinced, after much thought, that the rule ‘do the most perfect action which for you is possible’. ’’ (Prize Essay.2:229) Crusius and Wolff’s arguments essentially appeal to the un-provable
How do we determine when there VI. Divine Command Theory A. How is “good” Determined (what does it say right/wrong) - If you believe there is a higher power, and they have set moral commands, then an action is right and people are good if and only if they obey these commands, regardless of the consequences. What is good and what is right is what this being has stated is good and right B. Most Noted Philosopher(s) 1.
Stewart concluded that we are moral when we conduct ourselves in accordance with reason or conscience. Johann Gottleib Fichte (1762-1814) [Rammenau, Jena, Leipzig, Berlin]. He was the first great representative of the absolute idealistic school, who based his thought primarily on Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason. The relatively negative result of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason indicated to Fichte that men walk by faith rather than by sight, they live by what they believe rather than what they know. The moral interests of man must take precedence over his scientific interests.
In the Groundwork, the notion of the good does not rely on feeling or sensation; rather than it derives from the rational directly. Kant points out that every motive has an intended effect on the world. When desire drives us, we first examine the possibilities that the world leaves open to us, selecting some effect at which we wish to aim. But, if we act in accord with practical moral law, we encounter a significant difference since the only possible object of the practical law is the Good, since the Good is always an appropriate object for the practical law. Viewing the Good as rational consolidates
The goal of deontology is to find a categorical, unconditional imperative that will enable the creation of universal laws of nature, legislated by rational and free beings. The categorical imperative is formal, while the substance is decided by the person. The idea is that by a process of reasoning, one can check his intuitions and desires and see if they can become a general rule for moral behavior. Kant bases his theory on three main concepts: the good will, the duty and the law. The moral worth of an action is measured in its intention.
There must be a categorical imperative that Kant states “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can concomitantly will that it should become a universal law.”. Kant claims his categorical imperative is the only principle of morality (the only categorical imperative), we are entitled to expect that it determine the principles of morality uniquely. Since, if it leaves multiple incompatible sets of maxims open (we will have no basis for choosing among them), then there being no other principles of morality on which to base the choice besides categorical imperative. Assume that a person who believes s/he is acting from duty as the universal law suggested, it is possible that this person believes ‘false’ universal moral law. CI actually an imperative cannot tell what is moral or not because it doesn't really tell us what actions to perform.
First of all, the theory, which I would like to associate with this case, is the study of the problems of morality - Deontology, first voiced by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham. The beginning of this theory was put to the Kantian doctrine, which is confirmed by the following theses: “Good comes from Duty”; “The good is that exactly what we require from the duty and that the performance of duty leads us to the concept of peace and goodness itself”. The basis of this theory is that we have a moral obligation to do the right thing. Prone to Kant, the action has moral value only when it is done only on the goodwill. The main purpose of Deontology is to fulfill the duty, based on the rules of right, without taking into account what will be the consequences of this (Bentham & Bowring,