Kant's Categorical Imperative (29-Oct-2003)

Reading : Western Philosophy VII.5 "Duty and Reason as the Ultimate Principal"

In this extract, Kant addresses the issue of what it means to act in a morally good way. To start with, he distinguishes between "good" and "morally good". Things may be "good" without being morally good. "Intelligence, wit, judgement...are without good and desirable in many respects..." but they are not morally good. Kant says the only thing whch can be morally good is a good will.

An action that is motivated by a will to bring about a good situation is not a morally good action. "A good will is not good because of what it effects or accomplishes".

What is a morally good act then? It cannot be made good by the results that it brings about (this is in direct contrast to Mill's view); rather, it gains its moral value from the motive which inspired it. "In what, then, can their worth lie...? It cannot lie anywhere but in the principle of the will without regard to the ends which can be attained by the action."

This obviously discounts any actions which are motivated by a desire for a particular end, but also includes actions which do not succeed in bringing about beneficial results: "Even if...this will is entirely lacking in power to carry out its intentions...then it would still shine like a jewel for its own sake"

Given that the moral worth of actions is judged by their motive, what is the definition of a morally good motive? Kant says that this can be judged according to whether the motive is one of duty, rather than inclination. In other words, something you do because you ought to, rather than something you do because you want to. The act which has moral worth is the one which is performed from a motive of fulfilling a duty. A good person may make the world a better place, but he isn't morally good unless he acts in accordance with duty.

In some cases, duty and inclination will conform (e.g. you feel inclined to do the right thing as well as knowing that you should). Kant says that actions which are in accordance with duty and inclination have "no genuinely moral worth". It is actions that are performed from a motive of duty alone that have genuine moral worth.

So how should we know what our duties are? To answer this, Kant uses the idea of a maxim - a general rule which governs specific actions. For example the maxim "I will not lie" leads to the action "I will fill in my income tax return honestly". For a maxim to be one that inspires morally good actions, it must be one that could be applied universally "I ought never to act except in such a way that I can also will that my maxim should become a universal law".

For example, the maxim "I will not lie" is one that you would want everyone to adopt, and so acting in accordance with this maxim for the sake of the maxim would be morally good.

weekly paragraph

References

An online edition of Kant's "Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals"


Values and Virtues page