Goodwork Of The Metaphysics Of Moral By Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant is one of the many inspirational philosophers that represent Western European philosophy, especially with one of his famous philosophy work, which called, “Goodwork of the Metaphysics of Moral”. In his famous work he argues,” that morality is based neither on the principle of utility, nor on a law of nature, but on human reason (Sandel)”. In his philosophy work, he defines the thought process of defining the meaning of “goodwill” from his perspective and reflects upon the three suggestions that reflect upon the meaning of “duty”. In his writing, he clearly stated the second and third propositions of duty but did not clearly state the first proposition. At least he did not label any statement as the first proposition of duty, though …show more content…
I will go into detail of the concept of Immanuel Kant’s goodwill theory; two theories come into play and considerations, which are the theory of motive and theory of duty to the individual. The theory of motive complies with “an incentive you have adopted into your maxim, that is, as your reason for doing an action (Korsgaard)”. This adoption is determined by a principle of volition, morality or self-love, in accordance with which you deem the incentive to be a reason (Korsgaard). Kant’s definition of motive complies with the actual meaning of the action that the individual made (Korsgaard). The theory of duty complies with when the intention is acting out of duty and not of inclination (Garrett, 2006). Inclination is defined to do something because it makes you feel good or because you hope to gain something from it (Garrett, 2006). Kant’s theory referred to obeying the moral law by using the categorical imperative, which is to Act only on those maxims (or rules of action) that you could at the same time will to be a universal law (Garrett, 2006). This theory implies even though the individual did not achieve the ultimate goal, if the individual had acted on the “duty”, then it still has a moral purpose. The ultimate good will is for the individual to act upon duty alone and not on inclination. Kant refers to why is it important not to base it on …show more content…
I found that his theory very vague and left me with a lot of questions. The first question that took out to me after all the research I had conducted upon the theory is if with all of his propositions and his definition of goodwill, what individuals are really considered to have a good will. Does everyone start off with having goodwill and lose it depending on the situation and or their state of thinking or do only certain individual carry the state of having goodwill? I think it is hard to pinpoint, who actually is conducting tasks in performing good will because everyone has a different perspective in viewing things in life depending on your background and how you were raised. They also do refer to everyone in life not being perfect and how in life we make mistakes to learn from them, which bring more questions in my mind to if this was what Kant was referring to. To end my essay, we should all reflect upon our life to if we, as individuals, are conducting goodwill in our life to how Immanuel Kant referred with his