Immanuel Kant and his Moral Philosophy

Immanuel Kant was born on April 22, 1724 in Königsberg, Prussia into a family of harness makers. From ages 8 to 15, Kant received an education from the Collegium Fridericianum, which was a Pietist school. He later attended the University of Königsberg, where his focus quickly shifted to philosophy. His professor, Martin Knutzen, exposed him to the works of Christian Wolff and Isaac Newton. After he finished his education at University of Königsberg, he became a children’s tutor before returning to Königsberg. In 1754, Kant began teaching at the university until he retired in 1796.

Kant is best known for his moral philosophy. He developed his views in The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, The Critique of Practical Reason, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, The Metaphysics of Morals, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, and Lectures on Ethics, which was a collection of his students’ notes from his lectures.

Kant also explains good will as it related to our moral worth and duty. While in modern day, we tend to think of “good will” as having a similar meaning to “well-intentioned”, Kant’s definition is more closely related to a lifestyle. Kant defines someone of good will as someone whose will is aligned to what is deemed appropriate according to moral law. There should rarely be an occasion where someone of good will surrenders their morality to achieve something that they yearn for, regardless of what it is, because that would imply that their desires are worth more than what is morally acceptable. In addition, keeping the commitment to our morality is the foundation for anything that is truly worth having or attempting to have. Your good will must be executed with purely good intentions meaning that you cannot expect to receive a self-serving gain as a result of it.

All human wills that are decided by moral law are motivated by duty. Kant believed that if a divine will did exist, no matter how “good” it may be, it would be motivated by the feeling of duty rather than a natural impulse, so it would inherently not be good will. Kant says that any action that is motivated by duty, sympathy, happiness, self-interest, or self-preservation is not done in good will, even if good comes out of the decision. This opinion is very controversial, with many saying that having concern for others when making your decisions does not make said decisions any less good. Defenders of Kant’s position maintain that concern for others is not a problem, but letting it be the deciding factor for any choice automatically exempts it from being done in good will since decisions done in good will are motivated by morality.

Kant defines duties as rules or laws combined with personal constraint. When doing something because you believe it is your civic duty, you are motivated by respect for the rule or law that makes it your duty. Acting out of respect for a law implies that you agree with the intentions behind it. With that in mind, obeying all rules and laws does not imply good will. For example, the Jim Crow laws and the Nuremberg laws were immoral, so acting with the intention of respecting or carrying out those laws cannot be considered moral, and hence makes the behavior not good will. According to Kant, all people inherently have respect for moral law, even if they are not always motivated by it.

Kant believed that our moral duties were the categorical imperative, and we must always follow them regardless of whatever impulses we have to abandon it. He also distinguishes the categorical imperative from the hypothetical imperative, saying that the hypothetical imperative is exercised when we use our wills given that we have already willed an end. We use the hypothetical imperative anytime we complete any duty that does not directly relate to our moral duties.

According to Kant, there are four kinds of duties: perfect duties toward yourself, imperfect duties toward yourself, perfect duties toward others, and imperfect duties toward others. Each of these duties is derived from the categorical imperative, which he said was the foundational principle of morality, but those who have interpreted Kant’s work disagree about how to modernize the derivation of these duties. In Kant’s The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, he provides examples for each of these duties. His example of a perfect duty to yourself is to refrain from committing suicide, and his example of an imperfect duty to yourself is to expand upon your talents and abilities. He says that a perfect duty towards others is to not make promises that you do not anticipate keeping, while an imperfect duty towards others is to contribute to their happiness.

Most of the philosophers that Kant’s moral philosophy appeals to are attracted to his Humanity Formula for the categorical imperative. The Humanity Formula states that we should not treat humanity in human beings only as a means to an end, but rather as the end itself. It does not outwardly say that humanity cannot be a means, especially because any interaction we have in the world is going to directly or indirectly tied to something someone else has done or will do. The Humanity Formula also calls for respecting the humanity in people, rather than just not using it for our own advantage. This respect should come from a respect for the fact that we are all people, rather than as a reward for something someone does.

This is the final blogpost for Eboni Godwin (H01).