MORALITY DEPENDS ON MOTIVE

Morality Depends On Motive

Morality Depends On Motive

Abstract

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) argued that moral requirements are based on a standard of rationality he dubbed the “Categorical Imperative” (CI). Immorality thus involves a violation of the CI and is thereby irrational. Other philosophers, such as Locke and Hobbes, had also argued that moral requirements are based on standards of rationality. However, these standards were either desire-based instrumental principles of rationality or based on sui generis rational intuitions. Kant agreed with many of his predecessors that an analysis of practical reason will reveal only the requirement that rational agents must conform to instrumental principles. Yet he argued that conformity to the CI (a non-instrumental principle) and hence to moral requirements themselves, can nevertheless be shown to be essential to rational agency. (Allison,1990)

Discussion

Kant's most influential positions are found in The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (hereafter, “Groundwork”) but he developed, enriched, and in some cases modified those views in later works such as The Critique of Practical Reason, The Metaphysics of Morals, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View and Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason.(Baron,1995)

Aims and Methods of Moral Philosophy

The most basic aim of moral philosophy, and so also of the Groundwork, is, in Kant's view, to “seek out” the foundational principle of a metaphysics of morals. Kant pursues this project through the first two chapters of the Groundwork. He proceeds by analyzing and elucidating commonsense ideas about morality. The point of this first project is to come up with a precise statement of the principle or principles on which all of our ordinary moral judgments are based.(Allison,1990) The judgments in question are supposed to be those any normal, sane, adult human being would accept. Nowadays, however, many would regard Kant as being overly optimistic about the depth and extent of moral agreement.(Darwall,1985)

But perhaps he is best thought of as drawing on a moral viewpoint that is very widely shared and which contains some general judgments that are very deeply held. In any case, he does not appeear to take himself to be primarily addressing a genuine moral skeptic such as those who often populate the works of moral philosophers, that is, someone who needs a reason to act morally and whose moral behavior hinges on a rational proof that philosophers might try to give. (Rose,1954)

Although these are the two fundamental aims of moral philosophy, they are not, in Kant's view, the only aims. Moral philosophy addresses the question, What ought I to do?, and an answer to that question requires much more than delivering the fundamental principle of morality.(Carnois,1987) We also need some account, based on this principle, of the nature and extent of our various ethical obligations. To this end, Kant employs his findings from the Groundwork in The Metaphysics of Morals, and offers a categorization of our basic ethical obligations to ourselves and others. Moral philosophy should also characterize and explain the demands that morality makes on human psychology and forms of human social ...