PHI 1370 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Rational Agent, Categorical Imperative, Immanuel Kant
22 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
General idea is that good will come from doing one"s duty. Kantian focuses on rights and duties and tends to stress the complementary nature of the two. Immanuel kant: raised in lutheran pietistic tradition, father was a local pastor, central european (native) Insular like, little transition, little challenge to accepted practices. Prussians/calvinistic values of efficiency, austerity and discipline. Concerns matter of fact, which can be observationally confirmed. Claims and knowledge can be deduced through reason. Tends to favour reasoning that is: objective, absolute, abstract, nessescary. Derives from the greek words for duty and science. Instead, he claims, a person has a good will when he acts out of respect for the law. Acting out of respect for moral law because it is moral/rational is done so not to bring about the satisfaction of an action but because the rational actor has a duty to do so.
