Lecture
notes on Immanuel Kant's
Fundamental
Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
(1785)
(A Deontological
ethic)
Preliminaries:
I. Aiming
at happiness destroys it
a. "We find that the more a cultivated
reason applies itself with deliberate purpose to the enjoyment
of life and happiness, so much the more does the man fail of
true satisfaction." (GBWW p 257 +Watts)
II. Our
telos is to develop a good will (#2)
b. "...our
existence has a different and far nobler end, for which, and not for happiness,
reason
is properly intended, and which must, therefore, be regarded
as the supreme condition to which the private ends of man must,
for the most part, be postponed.... Admitting that nature generally
in the distribution of her capacities has adapted the means to
the end, its true destination must be to produce a will, not
merely good as a means to something else, but good
in itself, for which reason was absolutely necessary. This
will then, though not indeed the sole and complete good, must
be the supreme good and the condition of every other,
even of the desire of happiness." (p 257)
III. Good
will is the prerequisite condition for our worthiness to be happy,
and is the one unqualified good (#1)
c. "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, judgment,
and the other talents of the human 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. It is the
same with the gifts of fortune. Power, riches, honour, even health,
and the general well-being and contentment with one's condition
which is called happiness, inspire pride, and often presumption,
if there is not a good will to correct the influence of these
on the mind." (p
256)
IV. Treat
people as ends, never as means only
d. "So
act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any
other, in every case as
an end withal, never as means only." (p 272)
Main Points:
V. Must
act in accord with duty, and from the motive of duty
- ie, not from immediate inclination
- & not from self interest (egs p 258, attached)
VI. An
action's moral worth is not in the purpose to be attained, but
in the principle of volition, ie from duty
VII. What
is duty? "To act out of reverence for the moral law"
VIII. What is the law?
Distinguish hypothetical
imperatives, which are not moral imperatives (eg, eat 3 meals
per day, take tetracycline qid, etc), from the one categorical imperative:
e. "I
ought always to act in such a way that the maxim of my action should become
a universal law
[without self-contradiction]."
f. "There
is therefore but one categorical imperative, namely this: Act only on that
maxim whereby thou
canst at the same time will that it should become a universal
law [without self-contradiction]."
Egs, p 269 (attached)
(Citations for
quotations are to the Great Books of the Western World
edition of Utilitarianism)
Questions:
- The torture example
- PWA deliberately infecting
people so more funds would be forthcoming? (Teleological ethic
might agree? Deontological ethic might say deliberately harming
another is wrong?)