Kant's Principle Of Morality Essay

Morality, Kant believes is founded on pure reason and his goals are to find a supreme principle of morality. He looks to find this supreme principle of morality by finding some criteria to sort maxims into two categories those who are morally okay and those who are not. Kant eventually finds the meaning of his supreme principle of morality, the rules include it is clearly synthetic, it is clearly a priori, and is therefore an example of pure reason. According to the book “maxims are rules that express the subjective intentions of the agent in doing an action.” (446) There are many things that are good in this world Kant says, and he uses intelligence, judgement, and other intellectual abilities as an example of our gifts of nature, he also uses money, power, and health as goods of fortune.
“It is impossible to imagine anything at all in the world, or even beyond it, that can be called good without qualification except a good will.” (446) Kant thinks we can motivate ourselves with reason to do the good thing, because it is reasonable to follow the moral law. It is also reasonable to have a respect for the law and to do our duty which is our motivation to following the moral law. The moral law will be the rule for separating maxims from morally acceptable ones from morally unacceptable ones. Kant thinks we have a duty to follow a moral law which Kant says cannot be from examples or experience, but must be made up of a priori from practical reasoning. The moral law most also be a categorical imperative because acting immorally is deciding to make an exception for you when others have to obey the law. Kant thinks there is only one categorical imperative, but that it can be expressed in many different ways. One way Kant uses a categorical imperative is to use the concept of an end in itself. He says all of our actions have