Philosophy 2200C
March 23, 2013 Essay #1: Kant

Kant begins his study of the moral ideal by proclaiming that the moral ideal is to be “pure”. The idea of this “pureness” is explained in the very first sentence of Kant’s Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals: “Nothing in the world-indeed nothing even beyond the world-can possibly e conceived which could be called good without qualification except a GOOD WILL.” [Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, pg. 9] He later explains that there are other factors, such as intelligence, wit, or courage, that might come into play when making a moral decision but this could be harmful and is essentially wrong. Kant believes that you must do the right thing simply because it is right, without anything else influencing you. It is hard to fully grasp the moral ideal of what Kant is trying to say about the moral ideal, so here is a simple example of an everyday occurrence. In one instance, you are debating cheating on a test. You could decide not to cheat because you might get caught, or you might go to hell. In these cases, even though you wouldn’t cheat and would be doing the right thing, you are wrong. In Kant’s eyes, you are obeying the heteronomy, which is something other than you that is ruling you. What Kant would deem acceptable is not cheating because it’s wrong, which is called autos law, which is self-law. Kant also believes that you cannot do something for an outcome of good. For example, if someone were