PHL100Y1 Lecture Notes - Categorical Imperative
Document Summary
Kant: morality and duty: kant attempts to straighten out what morality is concerned with and to discover the fundamentals of morality, the rational core of morality, there are fundamental rules that form moral thoughts. Actions are events that are brought about (performed by) agents. The goodness of an action does not depend on the kind of action it is. Will is a psychological faculty and is responsible for our choices and attempts to do things. To have good will is to aim to do things in the right way: don"t have to succeed. What is the right way: to do things because you think they ought to be done. Therefore goodness of an action consists in its being done because the agent thinks it is what ought to be done. In chapter 1, kant claims to be moving from ordinary rational knowledge of morality to the theory that underlies these first-level normative prescriptions: find the theory in three notions:
