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Single Idea 8024

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / b. Rational ethics ]

Full Idea

As to what activities we ought to engage in, what ends we should pursue, the categorical imperative seems to be silent.

Gist of Idea

The categorical imperative says nothing about what our activities and ends should be

Source

comment on Immanuel Kant (Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals [1785]) by Alasdair MacIntyre - A Short History of Ethics Ch.14

Book Ref

MacIntyre,Alasdair: 'A Short History of Ethics' [Routledge 1967], p.197

A Reaction

I think this is the fatal objection to Kant's view. He says, for example, that promise-breaking is inconsistent with a belief that promises are good, but who said promises are good? No ethical system can get started without values.

The 33 ideas with the same theme [pure reason produces ethical values and principles]:

22757 Stoics say that folly alone is evil [Stoic school, by Sext.Empiricus]
21826 The Soul reasons about the Right, so there must be some permanent Right about which it reasons [Plotinus]
22112 For humans good is accordance with reason, and bad is contrary to reason [Aquinas]
21872 We seek our own advantage, and virtue is doing this rationally [Spinoza]
21873 Men only agree in nature if they are guided by reason [Spinoza]
12473 We can demand a reason for any moral rule [Locke]
12495 Pursuit of happiness is the highest perfection of intellectual nature [Locke]
12541 Morality can be demonstrated, because we know the real essences behind moral words [Locke]
19769 Rational morality is OK for brainy people, but ordinary life can't rely on that [Rousseau]
5074 Kant united religion and philosophy, by basing obedience to law on reason instead of faith [Taylor,R on Kant]
8024 The categorical imperative says nothing about what our activities and ends should be [MacIntyre on Kant]
18235 Only human reason can confer value on our choices [Kant, by Korsgaard]
21375 Reason can be vicious, and great crimes have to be rational [Schopenhauer]
21915 To deduce morality from reason is blasphemy, because it is holy, and far above reason [Schopenhauer]
2921 Philosophy grasps the limits of human reason, and values are beyond it [Nietzsche]
14812 Intellect is tied to morality, because it requires good memory and powerful imagination [Nietzsche]
20572 De Sade said it was impossible to rationally argue against murder [Adorno/Horkheimer]
23684 Morality gives everyone reasons to act, irrespective of their desires [Foot, by Hacker-Wright]
23690 We all have reason to cultivate the virtues, even when we lack the desire [Foot, by Hacker-Wright]
23685 Reason is not a motivator of morality [Foot, by Hacker-Wright]
23691 Rejecting moral rules may be villainous, but it isn't inconsistent [Foot]
23686 Moral reason is not just neutral, because morality is part of the standard of rationality [Foot, by Hacker-Wright]
23693 Practical rationality must weigh both what is morally and what is non-morally required [Foot]
9238 Morality isn't based on reason; moral indignation is quite unlike disapproval of irrationality [Frankfurt]
8045 The failure of Enlightenment attempts to justify morality will explain our own culture [MacIntyre]
12037 Euripides's Medea is a key case of reason versus the passions [Annas]
20165 Reason and morality do not coincide; immorality can be reasonable, with an ideology [Kekes]
20171 Practical reason is not universal and impersonal, because it depends on what success is [Kekes]
20175 If morality has to be rational, then moral conflicts need us to be irrational and immoral [Kekes]
23729 Moral internalism says a judgement of rightness is thereby motivating [Smith,M]
23730 'Rationalism' says the rightness of an action is a reason to perform it [Smith,M]
18678 Maybe final value rests on the extrinsic property of being valued by a rational agent [Korsgaard, by Orsi]
15675 We don't condemn people for being bad at reasoning [Finlayson]