Metaphysics

(1) Immanuel Kant’s main purpose in the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals is to identify and examine the principle of morality. To be moral, we must make moral decisions using our own reason. An act isn’t ethical if it’s done with ulterior motives in mind (2) The key question Immanuel kant is addressing is, what we want to do isn’t what we ought to do. Kant analyzes the idea of duty to reveal a fundamental moral principle. Would you want people to act like you? Did you do the right thing…

This week’s reading covered Mills’ “But What are You Really? The Metaphysics of Race.” Mills explores how race is both interpreted internally and externally and how it is a social construction. In particular the criteria for racial identity felt largely expanded and made me question why such ideas needed such an expanse. The seven points of criteria is as follows: bodily appearance, ancestry, self awareness, public awareness, culture, experience, and subjective identification. Bodily appearance…

When Michael Brown was shot August 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis his aggressor, Officer Darren Wilson had applied what Cornell West has called an “ocular metaphysics” in this interpretation of what kind of person Michel Brown was, a criminal. In this case Daren Wilson saw that Michel was an African American, he processed a negative association that lead him to a misunderstanding, not only that, but his class authority gave him the right to shoot him and lastly his ego…

Kant and Nietzsche According to Kant the only thing in this world that is explicitly good is “good will.” Exploring the aphorisms in the Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, we will examine the three primary factors Kant uses as his basis for confirming good will. In the first of three primary factors Kant explains, that every individual should harbor the obligation of “duties.” Kant felt that for each person to be the greatest individual they could possibly be they had to try and obtain…

In Grounding for the Metaphysics of Moral, Kant discusses the term of good will and further develops the nature of it. In the book, he gives several examples to illuminate human nature of good willing through the concept of duty, which is that duty is an action which we are force to perform out of respect for moral law. And there are three of the examples that clearly explain the terms. In the first example, the author states that a dealer shouldn’t overcharge an inexperienced purchaser in…

A Juxtaposition of the Metaphysics of Aquinas and Kant Two key philosophers that one must examine in order to gain a better grasp of metaphysics are Saint Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant. Through a thorough examination of both thinkers’ metaphysical philosophies, one can conclude that they differ in their beliefs regarding the origin and essence of beings and Being. In his examination of metaphysics, Saint Thomas Aquinas believes that in order to understand being and Being, one must start with…

Review of Literature Metaphysics teaches we are of the body, but we are not, the body. Thich Nhat Hanh states: “This body is not me, I am not limited by this body, I am life without boundaries, I have never been born and I have never died” (188). For this to be understood, one needs to know the domains of human life and how the human life is directly connected to cosmic life.(Ref) The life of each individual self can be seen to encompass several levels. These can be described as: (i)…

In the second chapter of his work Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, author Kant discusses the idea of an imperative as it relates to moral decision making, specifically how a person will decide the right course of action in any given situation. Kant defines imperative as a demand or command of reason action. When we have a goal in mind, the imperative is the reasonable course of action that we feel we must take. Kant then distinguishes between two types of imperatives. First, he…

of discovering the science of metaphysics. Kant in his writings questions the possibility of metaphysics claiming that it does not show a significant difference between truth and error. In fact, he maintains that metaphysics has not yet acquired universal access to knowledge that is capable of classifying it as a pure mathematics. Kant acts as the center of understanding the modern physics through the establishment of the understanding of pure knowledge of metaphysics. His critique of the…

Concept of Duty In his work, Foundations of Metaphysics Morals, Kant explains the concept of duty. Human beings feel obliged to do certain social activities such as a parent taking a child to school. Failure to do the social activities is considered unethical. In most countries failure to perform these moral activities is illegal. In this regard, Kant argues that the central radix of morality starts with the urge of obligation (Hughes). Similarly, we may apply the concept of duty and…