A priori

all motivations are pure. Kant then states a limitation that not all actions are performed completely out of good will, and only categorical imperatives, which are actions that are done just for the sake of being done, and therefore considered as a priori since it is a means and an end, are truly pure. This is agreeable, however, it must be noted that hypothetical imperatives can also have good will (i.e. lying in order to protect someone’s feelings), yet at the same time, categorical…

This essay will analyze the similarities and differences of an ancient greek philosopher, Plato and the modern influence of Immanuel Kant. Plato’s writings are actually Socrates thoughts, Socrates was the main philosopher behind Plato’s philosophies. The philosophies were structured around, thinking your own mind/obtaining knowledge, living the good life, and the immortal soul. Kant’s philosophies can be looked at as branches from Plato’s knowledge and thought because of the gap in their…

would be the only one with the power to perform them. Hume says that everyone should be skeptical of miracles, and has two main arguments for why he says that; a priori and a posterior. Hume is a philosopher who is skeptical of miracles in any form. The first argument behind Hume’s skepticism is surrounded by the idea of a priori. A priori is having knowledge or a belief based on one’s thought alone, independent from experience. This is simply believing what you have heard from a separate…

Immanuel Kant was prevalent philosopher who focused on the morality in his 18th century work “Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals.” Here, he separates the branches of knowledge, what is inherently good, and the imperatives to guide morality. The first major premise of his Kant’s view of morality is his division thesis; it separates ethics into two groups: rational and empirical. The rational side, marked by its sole use of reasoning and logic is called morals. In contrast, the empirical…

people keep track of their moral obligation and ensure that their motivations are pure; not self-interested. A secure understanding of morality must be based on the a priori concepts of reason that are from pure philosophy because a priori concepts occur to people before they have any sensory perception. As a result, “pure”, a priori concepts give intrinsic validity to universally valid moral ideas. In addition, morality based on reason not only is logical to everyone but also superior to a…

During the Age of Enlightenment, writers and philosophers in Western Europe published works focusing on individualism and its relation to moral philosophy. Immanuel Kant investigated principles of deontological ethics, which relate to duty and moral obligation. In Kant’s work Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals he focuses specifically on the concept of the good will. In his work the reader finds that is a multi-faceted moral concept, that lays the foundation for all of Kant’s arguments.…

reason (Kant 329). Imposing empirical principles for morality is dangerous because the unconditional purity of the prescription is ruined; the will can no longer behave autonomously (Kant 340). This is because reason is a priori and necessary. For Kant, the idea of an a priori power of reason that determines the will precedes all contingent, empirical factors; this will must apply to all possible rational beings (324). The psychology of human beings is irrelevant in the question of the…

The ontological argument is different than the cosmological or teleological arguments as it relies on A Priori knowledge rather than A Posteriori. A Priori knowledge is knowledge that you can know prior to any experience; it is known through reason alone. This essay will explore how reliable the ontological argument is. The ontological argument is an argument for the existence of god by St Anselm (1033-1109). Anselm defined god as “that than which nothing greater can be conceived.” His argument…

Critique of Reason Through a Nietzschean Lens Reason has arguably been the driving force behind most popular philosophies since the peak of the Greco-Roman era thousands of years ago. The works of philosophers of reason, like Plato, who Nietzsche fervently critiques, have laid the groundwork for many of his ideological successors to proving reason to be the ultimate goal of all philosophy - a way to explain the unknown world and utilize knowledge as a means to quantify and qualify existence.…

In his concise but very satisfying essay, “On the immorality of the Soul” Hume presents many sharp and brief arguments against considerations of afterlife. He offers them within three successive sections; moral, physical and metaphysical. He argues that there is no reason at all to think that the soul is immoral, except that the Bible says it is, so it must be true. But in reality, it is the gospel and the gospel alone that has brought life and immorality to light (Hume, 590). Firstly, there…