Moral theory of Immanuel Kant’s concept of goodness and goodwill

Biography

Immanuel Kant was born April 1724. He was a German philosopher who died on 12th February 1804 (Nuzzo,3). During his time he was considered as a modern figure of philosophy as he argued on the fundamental issues of the human mind and experience. He said it was a reason for the source of morality and the aesthetics that rose from the faculty of unbiased judgment.  He considered it essential to create time and space so that reasonable and sensible reforms could be made so that fair judgment could be realized (Nuzzo, 9). Kant achieved Copernican revolution by himself by a reversal of the old age belief that revolved around the people. He had a key influence on the contemporary philosophy particularly in areas of epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, political theory and metaphysics.

Kant’s major work involved establishing the relation between human and reason experience and the move beyond the failures of the traditional metaphysics and philosophy (Nuzzo, 8). He strived to put an end to the regime of a speculative and futile era of human theories of experience by a way of resisting skeptical thinking. He showed a way beyond the stalemate of the traditional philosophy to the modern philosophy that led to an empiricist and a rationalist by a way of widely synthesizing modern and the traditional one. The main personal mannerism of Kant refuted and explained the introduction of Goldthwait.

Despite his main work of philosophy of metaphysics and ethics he also made a major contribution to other disciplines such as the astronomical discovery of the earth’s rotation nature which made him win the prize of Berlin Academy in the year 1754 (Nuzzo, 4). It was noteworthy of Kant to pinpoint out a discovery that was not discovered by the physical astronomers or the mathematicians of the frictional resistance of the tidal currents against the earth surface that caused a decrease in the earth rotational speed. That was an immense discovery that he made towards the natural philosophy that attracted the huge attention of going unnoticed by the astronomers, naturalists or among the mathematicians. In the year 1840, the doctrine of energy began to take heart.

Kant also took part in geological speculation by writing a book about the history nature and the theory of celestial bodies upon the Newtonian principles. Kant also explained the solar system in which Isaac Newton had explained by trying to explain its order (Nuzzo, 5). He also correctly reasoned the huge disk of stars I the Milky Way in which he theorized it from the rotating cloud of gas. He had a great scientific work that left some logic behind it through the series of important work.

The deontological ethical theory was brought about by the thinker Kant (Nuzzo, 101). The theory is founded on the observation that the only basically goodness or a good thing is good will as a duty of moral law. He regarded all the acts of people regardless of their desires or interest in a formulated categorical way without any contradiction. In this theory, Kant argued that despite whether people achieve what they intended to do their actions are always beyond their control and so the morality actions of the people does not depend on their actions. What individuals are able to manage is the willpower behind the given an act (Kowalski, 130).

The principles of an act can, therefore, be reviewed in relation to the inspiration left after it. There must be a consideration of the moral grounds that people’s actions leave behind. “There is no possibility of thinking of anything at all in the world, or even out of it, which can be regarded as good without qualification, expect a good will”( Kowalski, 118). He further says that the only one thing that is good without any sort of qualification is goodwill. Health, wealth, and courage can be used for the ill purpose and therefore they are not intrinsically good. Happiness is also considered not to be intrinsically good because for one to be happy they must possess a good will. Goodwill is the only thing considered to be unconditionally good. An act of natural or impulse inclination cannot result into goodness even when impulse coincides with duty. Motivation is an act that may have positive results by making people happy but it is not the right type of motive as it cannot be unconditionally good, therefore the appreciation and recognition of any duty must drive our actions (Kowalski, 153).

Although there are critics of Kant’s concept of goodness and goodwill the theory is able to explain the logic behind motivation and how good will is the only thing. The theory is affirmative to the concept of moral ethics Immanuel Kant’s concept of goodness and goodwill such as a perfect duty that of not to lie and always hold the truth while it is an imperfect duty to give charity can be applied at a certain place and time hence it can be flexible differentiating between good will and a good thing.

The reason as to why I choose Kant is that he is a philosopher who is known of his great works that have had impacted the study of philosophy in a great manner. His work is based on facts that they can be proven. He also changed the traditional way of human ethic by developing a theory that did shed lit about the human actions and the moral ethics behind it. Kant work was also diverse as he also contributed immensely to other works rather than just in philosophy that mean a lot of his work can be considered due to the dynamic nature of his writing and discovery.

 

 

Work cited

Kowalski, Dean A. Steven Spielberg and Philosophy: We're Gonna Need a Bigger Book. Lexington, Ky: University Press of Kentucky, 2008. Print.

Nuzzo, Angelica. Kant and the Unity of Reason. Indiana, Ind: Purdue University Press, 2005. Print.