PHILOS 2D03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Deontological Ethics, Categorical Imperative, Orbital Inclination
24 Sep 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
What is good without qualification is a good will. All of our natural capacities (intelligence, physical abilities, skills, etc. ) and all of the external goods we can receive (power, wealth, health, fame, happiness in general, etc. ) can all be used for bad as well as good. Even attributes like moderation, self-control, and calm-deliberation, while good, are not good without qualification (cid:862)without the pri(cid:374)(cid:272)iples of a good will, the(cid:455) (cid:272)a(cid:374) (cid:271)e(cid:272)o(cid:373)e e(cid:454)tre(cid:373)el(cid:455) (cid:271)ad(cid:863) A good will is the highest good because it is the only thing that is valuable in itself and the only thing upon which the value of anything else depends. Hypothesis: suppose that your general well-being (intrinsic good) depended on all of your capacities functioning for the sake of this purpose. If so, it would have been better to not have been endowed with the capacity to reason at all. It would have been better to just have the necessary instincts to achieve the intrinsic good.
