Kant’s Moral Philosophy: Autonomy, Duty, and Formalism
Kant’s Ethics: Autonomy, Duty, and Formalism
Three key characteristics are noted in Kant’s ethics: autonomy, duty, and formalism. It is an autonomous ethic, an ethic of duty, and a formal ethical system. Kant argues that a human being is both sensitive and rational. Under the sensitive aspect lies the set of instincts, passions, tendencies, and empirical determinations, which are unique to each individual. These inclinations are subjective and not universal.
As rational beings, humans are free and can govern their lives according to universal laws of reason. This means that:
- The basis of moral norms is not in something external to reason itself. Reason gives itself its own law of conduct and behavior; it is an autonomous, self-legislating reason. The law that reason gives itself does not come from the empirical realm but is a priori, necessary, and valid for all human beings as rational (universal).
- The human being, being sensitive, is inclined to act according to their empirical determinations. The moral law (which is not empirical) is presented with a markedly imperative character. Thus, expressions or formulas of the moral law are required imperatives. To act according to the moral law means to act according to what it mandates. This mandatory duty is to act under the moral law.
- An action is only good when the person, besides acting according to duty, acts out of respect for the law and duty itself. The moral value of an action is not in the purpose to be achieved but in the principle of duty, which is the need for action based on the law.
The Formal Character of Kantian Ethics
The formal character of Kantian ethics is expressed in formulations of the categorical imperative. Morality is the principle of willing or of a pure will, in the formality of the law a priori and rational, that is, universalized.
- Maxim: The subjective principle of action (the rule that determines behavior).
- Moral or Practical Law: The objective principle, valid for every rational being; namely, the principle that all men would act upon if their will was determined by reason and did not depend on sensitive motivations.
Postulates of Practical Reason
Kant defines the Postulates of Practical Reason as those realities which, being unknowable to reason in its theoretical use, must be accepted as a condition of the possibility of morality itself.
Empiricism
Empiricism is the philosophical trend that sees experience as a criterion or standard of truth in knowledge. As such, it concerns experience (from the Greek empiria) in its second meaning. It is not “personal participation in repeatable situations” (with personal and subjective meaning) but the repeated experience of certain situations that gives us an objective and impersonal criterion to learn things (or situations). Empiricism is characterized by two fundamental aspects:
- It denies the absoluteness of truth, or at least denies that absolute truth is accessible to humans.
- It recognizes that all truth must be tested and, based on experience, may eventually be changed, corrected, or abandoned.
Empiricism does not oppose reason in any way but denies the claim to establish necessary truths, that is, truths that are valid in such an absolute way that it makes their verification or control unnecessary, absurd, or contradictory. Most of the time, we act or think empirically. We expect things to happen more out of habit or custom than scientific reasoning. In this sense, empiricism is opposed to rationalism.