God, Education, and Modern Metaphysics by Tubbs Nigel;

Author:Tubbs, Nigel;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Kant (1724–1804)

Before looking at Hegel on KT specifically, we turn to Kant, to illustrate KT in the doctrine of virtue from the Metaphysics of Morals (first published in 1797). The first duty of a human being, though not the principal duty, is self-preservation. But as a moral being the greatest violation of a human being’s duty to himself is ‘lying’ (Kant, 1996, 182), for he ‘violates the dignity of humanity in his own person’ (1996, 182). Yet to deceive oneself intentionally ‘seems to contain a contradiction’ (1996, 183).

This inner struggle is the modern courtroom of KT. ‘Consciousness of an internal court in man… is conscience’ (1996, 189). But to avoid the contradiction here that this court is all one person, Kant distinguishes between the subjectivity of the court and its objectivity in the moral law and the concept and duty of freedom. The duty of one’s conscience is to ‘have to think of someone other than himself’ (1996, 189).24 It is conscience that has the power of pronouncing the sentence of happiness or misery depending upon the judgment made of the action. Such a person is ‘a scrutinizer of hearts’ (1996, 190) in relation to the objective moral commands. As such, conscience ‘must be thought of as the subjective principle of being accountable to God for all one’s deeds’ (1996, 190). Conscience is the subjectivity of knowing one’s self obliged to submit freely to the truth of the laws of practical reason, or to God as the omnipotent moral being. Religion here is ‘a duty of the human being to himself’ (1996, 193).

Therefore, this internal court of morality requires that the first command of all duties to oneself is KT, that is, to know one’s heart, to know where one finds oneself in the relation between heart and duty. Kant says,

Moral cognition of oneself, which seeks to penetrate into the depths (the abyss) of one’s heart which are quite difficult to fathom, is the beginning of all human wisdom. For in the case of a human being, the ultimate wisdom, which consists in the harmony of a human being’s will with its final end, requires him first to remove the obstacle within (an evil will actually present in him) and then to develop the original predisposition to a good will within him, which can never be lost. (1996, 191)

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.