Kant puts forth the premise that “everything in nature works in accordance with laws” (4:413). Within these laws, there are laws dictating biological needs, impulse, inclinations, and facts (such as gravity or hunger) and there are laws dictating voluntary behavior, such as the laws of freedom, that guide morals. (4:388) Kant determines there two types of beings, rational beings (those who act with reason) and irrational beings (those who act from impulse). Reason implies acting after deliberation and consideration for outcomes …show more content…
According to Kant, free will comes from respecting a law, giving the law to oneself, and guiding action in accordance with the representation of the law (4:400). Since giving a law to oneself does not include a higher power or governing body, we call this free will, for we are acting from our own volition, because we have decided through reason, that a law has value in itself and is a beneficial guide to actions (4:400). When children do not hit others because their parents have told them not to, they are given the law by a superior power (parents in this instance), they have not given the law to themselves, and thus, do not have free will. Therefore, those who govern themselves with reason (rational beings) by giving themselves the law to guide actions by, are the only beings with free