Secularism Vs Kant

During the time period of the majority of Kant’s work, the Enlightenment was rampantly spreading throughout Europe. The Enlightenment, a movement based on human reason and a shift away from the previous confines of Christianity, specifically by the Catholic Church which dominated the Dark Ages. Kant himself described that the Enlightenment “does not involve a human concept of a god, or of mysticism, or of spirituality, or of magic, or of a supernatural anything” (Kant, 17enlightenment something). This fundamentally agrees with the movement towards secularism through the utilisation of reason and thus allowing people to act using their free will. Prior to Kant’s work as a deontologist, the consequentialist theories, mainly that ‘the ends justify …show more content…
This assumption of humans inherently possessing the ability to know without outside doctrines of what is right and wrong allows for his basis of autonomy through reason. The possession of presupposed, innate knowledge exists within what he declares as phenomenal reality thus allows for the ability to use reason without an external influence (Kant, 1787). Kant separates what is commonly misconstrued as free will by determining if the action is done using the reason derived purely from the individual (Kant 1785). An action must be correct and in the best interest of the individual through their own intrinsic moral laws they have set upon themselves. Because of their presupposed knowledge of morals, an individual now possesses intellectual autonomy. This however can cause a problem as a thought or action influenced by an outside force such as another person or institution constitutes what he deems as heteronomously brought about (Kant 1785) . Kant acknowledges that because of the way humans are socialised, they cannot be fully confident that their internal decisions and reason was of their own or of something introduced to them during their lifelong exposure in society. This indicates that an individual cannot be properly free if their actions are influenced via externalities or passions caused by an outside source. If the …show more content…
His theories cause the fundamentals of religion such as upholding a moral code in order to gain entry to an promised afterlife. The act of following a religious, heteronomously imposed dogma ultimately causes the individuals to use this as a means to an end instead of using reason to act morally which is Machiavellian consequentialism at its finest. The incentive of an afterlife treats the choices in life as an end which arguably causes the actions to be influenced by the deity’s will rather than the free will of the individual using their own reason. In Kantian terms, the basis of life around a religion and pleasing a God strips an individual of their freedom which is exactly what the Enlightenment sought to fix. This being said, Kant is not in favour of condemning any religion or higher power, but in shifting the focus of one’s life from religious duties to the duties of oneself using their own free will to adhere to innate moral laws located