Immanuel Kant's Ideas Of Good Will And Duty

In the paper I argue that the act of stealing bread for survival of your family is morally unjust based on Kantian ethics, the contradiction between actions lacks the ability for the person to act based on duty, good will, and the moral law. As the basis of my argument, I will reference the work of Immanuel Kant and his theoretical development of the categorical imperative, furthermore, by implementing Kant’s ideas of good will and duty, it will become clear that Kantian ethics withholds a strict rule over the moral reasoning and actions of the individual in a social world. In the beginning sections of this paper I will briefly describe the basics of Kantian ethics, in particular, the categorical imperative and it three main formations, universality, …show more content…
The rational of his choice do not coincide with moral law or maxim of societal law, moreover, Valjean’s actions were not based on reason, since a rational actor would know to act based on the categorical imperative rather than acting on inclination or the self ***. Therefore, **Jean Valjean is struck with a contradiction within his own moral duties, for instance, as a father Jean has a duty and obligation to provide for his family and his children, however, he is also contradicted with the duty and obligation to follow the law. Based on the categorical imperative, Kantian ethics will argue that if Valjean is to act on reason and maxims than he is to follow state laws rather than feed his children. Valjean is contradicted with a conflict of duties, a duty to both his family and to his state, state laws to Kant represent a perfect duty, whereas, feeding his family represents an imperfect duty***. Meaning, the perfect duty represents an action that is morally just and universalized as being right, for instance state laws. Conversely, an imperfect duty is based on the inclination to act based on subjectivity, therefore the action does not conform to the categorical imperative and the three formulas, as discussed above. Consequently, when contradicted with two conflicts of duty the reason within the agent must act based on the perfect duty, which is the duty to follow state