Kant, Wordsworth, and Descartes have different beliefs on what it means to be a human being. Kant believes that we must represent ourselves as members of the kingdom of nature while also being members of the kingdom of ends. Wordsworth believes that the conception of human nature is based upon the relationship between the power of one’s imagination and nature. While Descartes argues that having a mind connected to a body is what it means to be a human. After discussing the differences between Kant, Wordsworth, and Descartes, I will demonstrate my own argument about my beliefs towards the meaning of being human. Kant’s argument in the Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals is that to become a member of the kingdom of ends and the kingdom
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The demand to represent ourselves as such is given to us by our consciousness of the moral law. According to Kant, the moral law is a sense of obligation that the will answers to. To conform to this moral law, one is a member of these kingdoms. Tying back into the concept of the good will, the only thing that matters is the character of it, not what the will accomplishes as an end or means. “A good will is not good because of what it affects, or accomplishes, not because of its fitness to attain some intended end, but good just by its willing” (10). According to Kant, he only thing that is unconditionally good is the will, even if someone cannot obtain their goal or end, whatever it may be, they are still considered good because their will itself is good without any further qualifications. “Power, riches, honor, even health, and the entire well-being and contentment with one’s condition, under the name of happiness, inspire confidence and thereby quite often overconfidence as well, unless a good will is …show more content…
He focuses primarily on two things, nature and the power of his imagination. The relationship between these two things explains his understanding of human nature. To begin, nature’s formative power, explained by Wordsworth, is its power to shape his character and how it made him to be the man he is today. “…escaped from the vast city, where I long had pined a discontented sojourner; now free, Free as a bird to settle were I will” (29). This shows how he chooses to be free and nature is a place where his mind can wander without any priorities or tasks at hand. How I think nature is shaping his character at this point is that it gets his creativity flowing and he is free to imagine what he likes. Another example of this is when he states, “I paced on with brisk and eager steps; and came, at length, to a green shady place, where down I sate beneath a tree, slackening my thoughts by choice, and settling into a gentler happiness” (33). Many instances or ideas have presented themselves, but he always finds a reason to shoot them down, “I spare to tell of what ensued, the life of common things – the endless store of things…” (35). He is reluctant to write about his own life because he finds that it is commonly routine and he would rather not bore his readers. Meanwhile, throughout Book First, he tells stories about his younger
The demand to represent ourselves as such is given to us by our consciousness of the moral law. According to Kant, the moral law is a sense of obligation that the will answers to. To conform to this moral law, one is a member of these kingdoms. Tying back into the concept of the good will, the only thing that matters is the character of it, not what the will accomplishes as an end or means. “A good will is not good because of what it affects, or accomplishes, not because of its fitness to attain some intended end, but good just by its willing” (10). According to Kant, he only thing that is unconditionally good is the will, even if someone cannot obtain their goal or end, whatever it may be, they are still considered good because their will itself is good without any further qualifications. “Power, riches, honor, even health, and the entire well-being and contentment with one’s condition, under the name of happiness, inspire confidence and thereby quite often overconfidence as well, unless a good will is …show more content…
He focuses primarily on two things, nature and the power of his imagination. The relationship between these two things explains his understanding of human nature. To begin, nature’s formative power, explained by Wordsworth, is its power to shape his character and how it made him to be the man he is today. “…escaped from the vast city, where I long had pined a discontented sojourner; now free, Free as a bird to settle were I will” (29). This shows how he chooses to be free and nature is a place where his mind can wander without any priorities or tasks at hand. How I think nature is shaping his character at this point is that it gets his creativity flowing and he is free to imagine what he likes. Another example of this is when he states, “I paced on with brisk and eager steps; and came, at length, to a green shady place, where down I sate beneath a tree, slackening my thoughts by choice, and settling into a gentler happiness” (33). Many instances or ideas have presented themselves, but he always finds a reason to shoot them down, “I spare to tell of what ensued, the life of common things – the endless store of things…” (35). He is reluctant to write about his own life because he finds that it is commonly routine and he would rather not bore his readers. Meanwhile, throughout Book First, he tells stories about his younger