What is practical reason?
Kant distinguished theoretical reason, which asks what we can know, from practical reason, which determines what we ought to do. Practical reason is reason's capacity to determine the will, and the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785) and the Critique of Practical Reason (1788) set out to show that pure practical reason can give a moral law independently of experience or desire.
The good will and duty
The Groundwork opens with the claim that nothing in the world can be considered good without limitation except a good will. A merchant who does not cheat customers only to protect his reputation acts merely 'in accordance with' duty; only actions done 'from' duty have moral worth.
Hypothetical and categorical imperatives
A command conditioned on a desired end, such as 'exercise if you want to be healthy', is a hypothetical imperative. A categorical imperative holds unconditionally for every rational being, and Kant expressed it in several formulas.
- Formula of universal law: act only according to that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.
- Formula of humanity: act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always at the same time as an end and never merely as a means.
- Formula of autonomy and the kingdom of ends: act as a member of a kingdom of ends, that is, as a rational being who legislates universal laws for itself.
Autonomy
The moral law is not imposed from outside by God, society or desire but is a law that reason gives to itself. Kant called this the autonomy of the will and distinguished it from heteronomy, in which the law comes from outside. Autonomy is also the ground of human dignity.
The highest good and the postulates of practical reason
In the Critique of Practical Reason, Kant regarded the highest good, virtue joined with happiness in proportion to it, as the final object of morality. To make it possible, he presented freedom, the immortality of the soul and the existence of God as postulates of practical reason: they cannot be proven theoretically but must be accepted practically.
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Criticism
Hegel criticised the categorical imperative as an empty formalism without concrete content. Utilitarians argue that it ignores consequences, and Kant's strict ban on lying (his 1797 essay holding that one may not lie even to a murderer) is criticised as too rigid when duties conflict. Even so, his ideas of human dignity and autonomy strongly influenced modern human rights thinking and theories of justice such as Rawls's.
References
- Kant, I. (1785). Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten. Riga: Hartknoch. (Gregor, M. & Timmermann, J., Trans. (2012). Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Cambridge University Press.)
- Kant, I. (1788). Kritik der praktischen Vernunft. Riga: Hartknoch. (Gregor, M., Trans. (2015). Critique of Practical Reason. Cambridge University Press.)
- Hegel, G. W. F. (1820). Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts. Berlin: Nicolai.
- Wood, A. W. (1999). Kant's Ethical Thought. Cambridge University Press.
- Korsgaard, C. M. (1996). Creating the Kingdom of Ends. Cambridge University Press.