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Kant's Account of Good Will and Duty (The Good Will (What is good…
Kant's Account of Good Will and Duty
Act on a maxim
Intentions
Personal principles that guide decisions
Morality is a set of principles that are the same for everyone and that apply 'the will'
Kant talks of our ability to make choices and decisions as 'the will'
Will is rational
We do not act on instinct
The Good Will
Is anything morally good without qualification?
Only good will
Anything else can either be bad or contribute to what is bad
People can become too clever and do bad things
Happiness can be morally bad
We evaluate happiness by morality
Having a morally good will is a precondition to deserving happiness
What is good about the good will is not what is achieves
Doesn't derive its goodness from successfully producing some good result
It is good in itself
If someone tries their hardest to do what is morally right but they do not succeed, then we should still praise their efforts as morally good
Good will must be good in itself
Maxims are principles of choice
Subjective
Morality is a set of principles for everyone
Acting in accordance with duty and acting out of duty
Have a good will is to be motivated by duty
Shopkeeper sells his goods at a fixed price with the correct change etc
This is the morally right thing to do
This does not show good will, this shows self interest
This is to benefit his business, not because it is the right thing to do
The shopkeeper acts in accordance with duty
Whatever the motives
Not motivated by duty
He does not act from or out of duty
To act out of duty is to do what is morally right because it is morally right
Applies in individual cases and ones regarding other people
You should be praised and encouraged if you help someone else just because that is what you want to do or enjoy doing
But your actions don't necessarily have moral worth, because you are helping them just because you want to, and not because it is morally right to do so
But because you want to help someone else, it is unclear whether you are acting out of duty or not.
The Categorical Imperative
'Act only on the maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law'
Something that everyone can act upon
Principle of choice
Maxim does not specify any goal or end
Hypothetical and categorical imperative
Hypothetical
What you ought to do
Means to an end
Willing the end entails willing the means
To will an end is to will an effect
But the concept of an effect contains the concept of a cause
Hence, to will an effect you must will the cause
The cause is the means
It is important here that you don't merely want the end but actually want it
Explicit desire or goal
Hypothetical's can be avoided by simply giving up the assumed desire or goal
It is possible to opt out of a hypothetical imperative
Moral duties are not hypothetical
Duty regardless of what you want
This is categorical
They are not a means to some further end, because what makes an action good is that it is willed by the good will
Contradiction in conception and contradiction in will
Contradiction in conception
False promise
Theft
Logically impossible if everyone does this
Cannot be rationally willed
Undermines concept of ownership
Contradiction in will
It is logically possible to universalise the maxim
Kant does not claim that an action is wrong because we wouldn't like the consequences if everyone did it
His test is whether we can rationally will that our maxim be a universal law
We cannot will that no one will ever help us
Morality and reason
Disobeying categorical imperative involves self - contradiction
Reason determines what our duties are and gives us the means to discover them
Furthermore, we intuitively think that morality applies to all and only rational beings
Nature of morality in terms of nature of reason
Morality is universal
Morality and rationality are categorical
The Second Formulation
Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end
Only thing of unconditional value
Everything else valuable depends on good will
Valuable as a means to an end
Value is subjective
Intrinsic worth
Dignity
Rational will
People are ends in themselves
We cannot use them only as means
Appeal to another person's reason in discussing with them what to do, rather than manipulating them
People may pursue an end that they adopt
Respect rationality
Being an end in themselves means that they are an end for others
Adopt their ends as our own
Help pursue their ends