Kant's ethics

• Immanuel Kant is a key figure in modern philosophy, influencing ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, and aesthetics.
• One of the key ideas of Immanuel Kant's philosophy is human autonomy.
• Immanuel Kant argues that human understanding is the source of the general laws of nature that structure all our experience; and that human reason gives itself the moral law, which is our basis for belief in God, freedom, and immortality.
• The goal of Immanuel Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals is to establish the supreme principle of morality.
• In the First Section of his Groundwork, Immanuel Kant points out the distinction between a priori (pure) concepts and a posteriori (empirical) concepts where the former occur to us prior to experience and the latter derived from our experience in the world.
• Good will, as defined by Immanuel Kant, is good without limitation, the sum of all inclinations, and good in itself.
• The idea of the will of every rational being as a will giving universal law is a part of the formulation of the moral law known as Autonomy.
• Another formulation of the moral law is Humanity as End in Itself, which instructs us to act so that we use humanity, as much in our own person as in the person of every other, always at the same time as end and never merely as means.
• The formulations of the moral law include the Law of Nature, which advises us to act as if the maxim of our action were to become through our will a universal law of nature.
• The Realm of Ends is another part of the formulation of the moral law, advising us to act in accordance with maxims of a universally legislative member for a merely possible realm of ends.
• The categorical imperative is a single one, and specifically this: Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.
• Duty, as defined by Immanuel Kant, is easy to distinguish whether the action in conformity with duty is done from duty or from a self-seeking aim.
• For example, the merchant who does not overcharge inexperienced customers is acting in conformity with duty.
• Immanuel Kant defines duty as the concept that contains a good will.
• Hypothetical imperatives represent the practical necessity of a possible action as a means to attain something else which one wills (or which it is possible that one might will).
• A maxim is a general rule that includes the action itself and the end that it seeks.
• These are either hypothetical or categorical.
• Can you will so that your maxim should become a universal law?
• The moral worth of an action from duty is not in the aim that is supposed to be attained by it, but in the maxim in accordance with which it is resolved upon; thus that worth depends not on the actuality of the object of the action, but merely on the principle of the volition, in accordance with which the action is done, without regard to any object of the faculty of desire.
• Universal Law: I ought never to conduct myself except so that I could also will that my maxim become a universal law.
• A maxim is the subjective principle of the volition; the objective principle (i.e., that which would serve all rational beings also subjectively as a practical principle if reason had full control over the faculty of desire) is the practical law.
• Categorical imperatives represent good in itself, where one wills in accord with reason.
• Duty is the necessity of an action from respect for the law.
• Hypothetical imperative: The representation of an objective principle, insofar as it is necessitating for a will, is called a ‘command’ (of reason), and the formula of the command is called an imperative.
• Categorical imperatives represent actions as objectively necessary for itself, without any reference to another end.
• If the unhappy one, strong of soul, more indignant than pusillanimous or dejected over his fate, wishes for death and yet preserves his life without loving it, his maxim has a moral content, according to Immanuel Kant.
• Immanuel Kant argues that to secure one's own happiness is a duty.
• The lack of contentment with one's condition, in a crowd of many sorrows and amid unsatisfied needs, can easily become a great temptation to the violation of duties, according to Immanuel Kant.
• An action has moral worth only if it is done from duty, according to Immanuel Kant.