CAS PH 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Universal Law, Hypothetical Imperative, Immanuel Kant

• School: Boston University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: CAS PH 100
• Professor: Monica Link

Document Summary

Immanuel kant: born 1724, died 1804, german, wrote on metaphysics, epistemology, moral and political philosophy and aesthetics. Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals (1785): to establish a pure, a priori ethics. Reason leads to the categorical imperative (ci), ci generates particular duties. Good will motivates us to do our duty. The good will: it is impossible to conceive anything at all in the world, or even out of it, which can be taken as good without qualification, except a good will. Its usefulness or fruitlessness can neither add to, nor subtract from, this value. (505). Kant cares about the motive behind your action. Kant"s philosophy thus makes the morality of actions immune to luck. For example: trying to kill homeless person and accidentally kill a terrorist. Good will is the power to choose what reason demands as good. Duty + action: acting contrary to duty, acting in conformity with duty, acting from the motive of duty.