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Single Idea 21415

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / a. Preconditions for ethics ]

Full Idea

Moral feeling, conscience, love of one's neighbour, and respect for oneself (self-esteem). There is no obligation to have these, because they lie at the basis of morality, as subjective conditions of receptiveness to the concept of duty.

Gist of Idea

Duty is impossible without prior moral feeling, conscience, love and self-respect

Source

Immanuel Kant (Metaphysics of Morals II:Doctrine of Virtue [1797], 399 Intro XII)

Book Ref

Kant,Immanuel: 'The Metaphysics of Morals', ed/tr. Gregor,Mary [CUP 1991], p.200


A Reaction

A bit of a revelation, this one, because I thought the only precondition for Kantian morality was rationality. Turns out that he agrees with Aristotle (Idea 46) that you can't started in morality if your heart isn't in the right place.

Related Idea

Idea 46 We must take for granted that we should act according to right principle [Aristotle]


The 9 ideas with the same theme [what is needed to created an ethical system?]:

To understand morality requires a soul [Plato]
Animals lack morality because they lack self-reflection [Leibniz]
Immorality is not in the action, but in the deviation of the will from moral law [Berkeley]
Without God, creation and free will, morality would be empty [Kant]
Duty is impossible without prior moral feeling, conscience, love and self-respect [Kant]
Healthy morality is dominated by an instinct for life [Nietzsche]
Levinas took 'first philosophy' to begin with seeing the vulnerable faces of others [Levinas, by Aho]
Morality must be motivating, and not because of pre-moral motives [Nagel]
All moral life depends ultimately on piety, which is our recognition of our own dependence [Scruton]