The Importance Of Good Will By Kant

According to Kant, there is only one thing in the entire world that is completely and utterly good: good will. Good will is what controls, or should control, our talents, desires, and impulses so as to keep them from becoming damaging to society. In turn, how we use our talents and act on our desires and impulses determines our will. Our will is not determined by the outcomes of our decisions or even by how helpful our talents are to society; it is determined by how we use our talents and our reasoning behind our decisions. That reasoning is especially what produces good will. Sometimes with reasoning, however, we are forced with choices that while morally right, are not something that we personally prefer. In this, by choosing the decision …show more content…
This means that while a decision may make one uncomfortable, if it benefits everyone else. If someone murdered someone else, it would be justified for the law to punish them by executing them. Although those in power may not want to kill this person, there is a possibility that the murderer will kill someone else. To avoid this and protect the rest of the people of that society, it would be beneficial for the law to end this person’s life. Although the murderer’s family would most likely be affected negatively by the death, the vast majority of people would be safe. If the law took a chance and allowed the murderer to live unpunished and that person killed again, that blood, along with the blood of the first victim, would be on the hands of the law. This is because they did ignored their duty to protect people and prevent this from happening …show more content…
If someone had the capacity and will to murder someone else, then their will has been compromised and there is no going back. By murdering, one’s true toxic motives and desires are revealed. They were completely unable to use reasoning to either find the will to walk away and prevent themselves from committing this crime. The choice to murder someone is one of the most selfish decisions one could make. This is because there is no right reason to do it. Even if that person had done something to you, killing them would still not only be morally wrong, but would affect one’s good will permanently. Kant gives no evidence that it is possible to come back from damaging one’s good will. So, even if the murderer was remorseful, because it is apparent that they cannot control their desires and preferences with reasoning, the just punishment would be death. Because I believe that Kant has this viewpoint, I think he would definitely find the death penalty suitable in many situations. In conclusion, I believe that Kant would be pro-death penalty, but only when the situation requires it. The reasoning I used to come to this conclusion came from what I learned about him from his book, “The Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals.” Some evidence I took from this was that Kant is passionate about justice, that he believes that the good of the many outweighs the good of the few, and that I did not get the impression