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Full Idea
Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we should make ourselves happy, but how we should become worthy of happiness.
Gist of Idea
Morality is not about making ourselves happy, but about being worthy of happiness
Source
Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II.V)
Book Ref
Kant,Immanuel: 'Critique of Practical Reason (Third edition)', ed/tr. Beck,Lewis White [Library of Liberal Arts 1993], p.136
A Reaction
Whatever else you think of Kant's moral theory, this remark is a clarion call we can all recognise. Suppose we all somehow ended up in a state of maximal happiness by systematically betraying one another.
Related Ideas
Idea 18675 Kant may rate two things as finally valuable: having a good will, and deserving happiness [Orsi on Kant]
Idea 18234 The good will is unconditionally good, because it is the only possible source of value [Kant, by Korsgaard]
Idea 240 It would be strange if the gods rewarded those who experienced the most pleasure in life [Plato]
| 2681 | Aristotle is unsure about eudaimonia because he is unsure what people are [Nagel on Aristotle] |
| 5132 | Goods like pleasure are chosen partly for happiness, but happiness is chosen just for itself [Aristotle] |
| 30 | Happiness is perfect and self-sufficient, the end of all action [Aristotle] |
| 14522 | What happens to me if I obtain all my desires, and what if I fail? [Epicurus] |
| 22985 | Everyone wants happiness [Augustine] |
| 6210 | Life has no end (not even happiness), because we have desires, which presuppose a further end [Hobbes] |
| 1386 | A concern for happiness is the inevitable result of consciousness [Locke] |
| 1454 | Morality is not about making ourselves happy, but about being worthy of happiness [Kant] |
| 21061 | Duty does not aim at an end, but gives rise to universal happiness as aim of the will [Kant] |
| 2891 | Only the English actually strive after happiness [Nietzsche] |
| 4500 | It is a sign of degeneration when eudaimonistic values begin to prevail [Nietzsche] |
| 4558 | We have no more right to 'happiness' than worms [Nietzsche] |
| 18307 | I want my work, not happiness! [Nietzsche] |
| 7983 | Good versus evil has been banefully reduced to happiness versus misfortune [Baudrillard] |