CAS PH 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: A Priori And A Posteriori, Rationality, Consequentialism
5 Nov 2016
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His plan was to develop a moral theory that is not grounded in observations of actual human behavior. If we believe that rule x is a moral law grounded in our experiences as humans, then we have no guarantee that rule x is really universally applicable to all possible rational beings. If action x is wrong, then action x is always wrong. Ex. a rule such as do not lie must be valid for all rational beings, not just human men, if it is to count as a legitimate moral law. The only way we can determine if a rule is truly applicable for all rational beings is if it follows from the concepts of pure reason. Pure reason - thought that is somehow logically independent of experience and reason. A priori - knowledge of an action is derived from reason alone. A posteriori - knowledge of an action is derived by observation alone.
