Summary Of 'Groundwork For The Metaphysic Of Morals'

In the reading, “Groundwork for the Metaphysic of Morals”, Kant talks about motives which describes why people do the things that they do. The chapter that I will be focusing on is chapter 1, which the overall summary is if a person is acting from a sense of duty. Kant also explains the difference between doing something from duty and doing things for another reason. If I am acting from duty, I perform the action anyway even though it may not be in my interest. If I do something in accordance with duty, then I am performing the action because it pleases me and it is in my interest. I am going to talk about the difference between acting from duty and doing something in accordance with duty. In the reading, “Groundwork for the Metaphysic of Morals”, Kant gives the example of the shop-keeper and states that “a shop-keeper who charges the same prices for selling his goods to inexperienced customers as for selling them to anyone else” (Kant 8). In this case, the shop-keeper is acting in accordance with duty because he wants his customers to be happy and wants them to return. On the other hand, Kant also mentions that “When there is a buyers’ market, the shop-keeper may sell as cheaply to children as to others so as not to lose customers” (Kant 8). This means that the shop-keeper is acting from duty which further means that the …show more content…
We can do this by identifying whether are motive behind doing a task is something that we really enjoy are we just completing a task because we think it is the right thing to do. For example, if I have a bake sale for my church to help raise money for the church youth group to go on fun trips, I want to think about my motive behind doing the bake sale. Am I doing the bake sale because I “want” to help the youth group raise money for fun trips or am I helping the youth group because I “should” help the youth group raise money for fun