Immanuel Kant On Morality

Introduction
I like to think of myself as an optimistic person. I like to see people as good and honest folks. Of course, I would like to think that people are bad for various reasons, and although I may understand the reasoning behind a person’s bad actions, I will not condone the actions made. I was once a believer in Catholicism, until I felt that it was no longer necessary in my life. I felt that Catholicism hadn’t given me any satisfactory answers as to why I wanted to be a good person. I decided to look towards philosophy to find some answers. I found many philosophers helped me answer my questions, but one philosopher in particular gave me some insight on morality. That philosopher’s name is Immanuel Kant.
My reasons for picking Kant reflect my personal view of morality and ethics. My first reason is Kant’s idea of morality is not solely tied to religion or god. I wanted to find an answer to explain why I still had moral values, while no longer having religion in my life. Another reason for my gravitation towards Kant is the idea of grounding morality in logic. Having the idea that being moral is a logical course of …show more content…
The golden rule used in most religions helps give people the idea of treating others as they would themselves. In Sophie’s World, another quote in the book connects the golden rule and Kant by saying, “You could say that the golden rule says the same thing as Kant’s universal law of morals.” The idea of trying to make a religious belief into a logical moral principle, I find it very fascinating. By bringing perspective about what my will can bring about, Kant’s categorical imperative can separate happiness from selfishness. Finding happiness does not mean I should sacrifice my perspective about everyone to obtain it. Overall, I do agree with Kant on the idea that the categorical imperative is a grand idea for a set of impersonal moral