Ideas from 'Critique of Practical Reason' by Immanuel Kant [1788], by Theme Structure

[found in 'Critique of Practical Reason (Third edition)' by Kant,Immanuel (ed/tr Beck,Lewis White) [Library of Liberal Arts 1993,0-02-307753-0]].

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1. Philosophy / A. Wisdom / 1. Nature of Wisdom
Wisdom is knowing the highest good, and conforming the will to it
                        Full Idea: Wisdom, theoretically regarded, means the knowledge of the highest good and, practically, the conformability of the will to the highest good.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II.V)
                        A reaction: This seems a narrow account of wisdom, focusing entirely on goodness rather than truth. A mind that valued nothing but understood everything would have a considerable degree of wisdom, in the normal use of that word.
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 3. Philosophy Defined
What fills me with awe are the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me
                        Full Idea: Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe, the oftener and the more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], Concl)
                        A reaction: I am beginning to think that the two major issues of all philosophy are ontology and metaethics, and Kant is close to agreeing with me. He certainly wasn't implying that astronomy was a key aspect of philosophy.
1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / e. Philosophy as reason
Consistency is the highest obligation of a philosopher
                        Full Idea: Consistency is the highest obligation of a philosopher and yet the most rarely found.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.1.1.§3)
                        A reaction: I agree with this, and it also strikes me as the single most important principle of Kant's philosophy, which is the key to his whole moral theory.
1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 5. Metaphysics beyond Science
Metaphysics is just a priori universal principles of physics
                        Full Idea: Metaphysics only contains the pure a priori principles of physics in their universal import.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II.VI)
                        A reaction: 'Universal' seems to imply 'necessary'. If you thought that no a priori universal principles were possible, you would be left with physics. I quite like the definition, except that I think there would still be metaphysics even if there were no physics.
10. Modality / C. Sources of Modality / 1. Sources of Necessity
Necessity cannot be extracted from an empirical proposition
                        Full Idea: It is a clear contradiction to try to extract necessity from an empirical proposition.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], Pref)
                        A reaction: This is precisely the idea which Kripke challenged, claiming that the necessary essences of natural kinds such as gold have to be discovered empirically. All my intuitions are with Kant (and Hume) on this, but it is a complex issue…
20. Action / B. Preliminaries of Action / 2. Willed Action / a. Will to Act
Can pure reason determine the will, or are empirical conditions relevant?
                        Full Idea: This is the first question: Is pure reason sufficient of itself to determine the will, or is it only as empirically conditioned that it can do so?
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], Intro)
                        A reaction: This seems to be the core question of intellectualism, which goes back to Socrates. You can only accept the question if you accept the concept of 'pure' reason. Values seem to be needed for action, as well as empirical circumstances.
The will is the faculty of purposes, which guide desires according to principles
                        Full Idea: The will could be defined as the faculty of purposes, since they are always determining grounds of the faculty of desire according to principles.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.1.II)
                        A reaction: Do animals have wills? Kant implies that you can only have a will if you have principles. Compare Hobbes' rather less elevated definition of the will (Idea 2362).
20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 3. Acting on Reason / a. Practical reason
The sole objects of practical reason are the good and the evil
                        Full Idea: The sole objects of a practical reason are thus those of the good and the evil.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.1.II)
                        A reaction: Of course, you may aim to achieve x because it is good, while I judge x to be evil.
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / b. Rational ethics
Only human reason can confer value on our choices
                        Full Idea: Kant argues that only human reason is in a position to confer value on the objects of human choice.
                        From: report of Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788]) by Christine M. Korsgaard - Aristotle and Kant on the Source of Value 8 'Kant'
                        A reaction: If the source of value is humans, then it is not immediately clear why it is only our reason that does the conferring. What is the status of a choice on which reason fails to confer value? The idea is that reason, unlike desire, has intrinsic value.
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / h. Expressivism
People cannot come to morality through feeling, because morality must not be sensuous
                        Full Idea: In the subject there is no antecedent feeling tending to morality; that is impossible, because all feeling is sensuous, and the drives of the moral disposition must be free from every sensuous condition.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.1.III)
                        A reaction: I'm not quite clear (even after reading Kant) why moral drives 'must' be free of sensuousness. Aristotle gives a much better account, when he tells us that the sensuous drives must be trained in the right way, and must be in harmony with the reason.
22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / f. Ultimate value
Kant may rate two things as finally valuable: having a good will, and deserving happiness
                        Full Idea: In some interpretations it appears that for Kant two things are finally valuable: good will (unconditionally), and deserved happiness (conditionally on the value of good will).
                        From: comment on Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788]) by Francesco Orsi - Value Theory 2.2
                        A reaction: It doesn't sound difficult to reconcile these two. Just ask 'what is required of someone to deserve happiness?'.
An autonomous agent has dignity [Würde], which has absolute worth
                        Full Idea: For Kant, there is something about beings that can act autonomously that is itself of 'absolute worth', which Kant calls the 'dignity' [Würde] of each such agent.
                        From: report of Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788]) by Terry Pinkard - German Philosophy 1760-1860 02
                        A reaction: This answers my puzzle about where Kant's fundamental values come from. Surely wicked actions can be autonomous? Autonomous actions aren't thereby good actions. A 'good' will, course, whatever that is. Rational? My problem with existentialist ethics.
The good will is unconditionally good, because it is the only possible source of value
                        Full Idea: Kant argues that the good will is unconditionally good because it is the only thing able to be a source of value.
                        From: report of Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788]) by Christine M. Korsgaard - Aristotle and Kant on the Source of Value 8 'Kant'
                        A reaction: The obvious worry is the circularity of resting a theory of value on identifying a 'good' will as its source.
Good or evil cannot be a thing, but only a maxim of action, making the person good or evil
                        Full Idea: If something is held to be absolutely good or evil in all respects and without qualification, it could not be a thing but only the manner of acting, i.e., it could only be the maxim of the will, and consequently the acting person himself is good or evil.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.1.II)
                        A reaction: It goes on to deny that pain is intrinsically evil, but his reason for the claim is not clear. Nevetheless, I think he is right. This remark is an important bridge between Enlightenment concerns with law and Greek concerns with character.
22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / g. Consequentialism
Morality involves duty and respect for law, not love of the outcome
                        Full Idea: All the morality of actions may be placed in their necessity from duty and from respect for the law, and not from love for or leaning toward that which the action is to produce.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.1.III)
                        A reaction: Kant tries to reject consequentialism, but you cannot assess your duty or the universal law without an assessment of probable consequences, and we could never choose between laws if we did not already see value in the outcome.
22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / a. Nature of happiness
Our happiness is all that matters, not as a sensation, but as satisfaction with our whole existence
                        Full Idea: Our happiness is the only thing of importance, provided this is judged, as reason requires, not according to transitory sensation but according to the influence which this contingency has on our whole existence and our satisfaction with it.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.1.II)
                        A reaction: This is closer to the Greek eudaimonia than to the modern conception of happiness, which is largely just a feeling. Kant's view seems more like a private judgement on your whole life, where the Greek idea seems more public and objective.
Happiness is the condition of a rational being for whom everything goes as they wish
                        Full Idea: Happiness is the condition of a rational being in the world with whom everything goes according to his wish and will.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II.V)
                        A reaction: For such a sophisticated and rational philosopher this seems a rather crude notion. Reluctant alcoholics don't fit. Bradley has a much better definition (Idea 5655).
22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / c. Value of happiness
Morality is not about making ourselves happy, but about being worthy of happiness
                        Full Idea: Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we should make ourselves happy, but how we should become worthy of happiness.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II.V)
                        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.
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 1. Virtue Theory / a. Nature of virtue
The highest worth for human beings lies in dispositions, not just actions
                        Full Idea: The highest worth which human beings can and should procure for themselves lies in dispositions and not in actions only.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.1.II)
                        A reaction: This leaves the problem of the well-meaning fool, who has wonderful dispositions but poor judgement. What Kant is describing here is better known as virtue. See Idea 58.
Virtue is the supreme state of our pursuit of happiness, and so is supreme good
                        Full Idea: Virtue (as the worthiness to be happy) is the supreme condition of whatever appears to us to be desirable and thus of all our pursuit of happiness and, consequently, the supreme good.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II)
                        A reaction: Thus Kant can claim to be a virtue theorist, but giving us a very different account of how virtue arises. He emphasises elsewhere (Idea 6197) that the supreme good must be in the will, not in the outcome. 'Virtue' is here a rather thin concept.
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 2. Elements of Virtue Theory / c. Motivation for virtue
Moral law is holy, and the best we can do is achieve virtue through respect for the law
                        Full Idea: The moral law is holy (unyielding), although all the moral perfection to which man can attain is still only virtue, that is, a rightful disposition arising from respect for the law.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II.V)
                        A reaction: In comparison with Aristotle's view of virtue this is very passive and external. Aristotle doesn't need laws for virtue, he needs inner harmony and a grasp of what has high value.
23. Ethics / D. Deontological Ethics / 3. Universalisability
No one would lend money unless a universal law made it secure, even after death
                        Full Idea: If my maxim is 'augment my property by all safe means', I can't make that a law allowing me to keep a dead man's loan, because no one would make a loan if that were the moral law.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.1.1.§4)
                        A reaction: This is a simple illustration of Kant's strategy and it shows clearly how, for all his talk of 'pure reason', his moral law is strongly guided by consequences, and that these can only judged by prior values - for example, that loans are a good thing.
Universality determines the will, and hence extends self-love into altruism
                        Full Idea: The form of universality is itself the determining ground of the will, …and from this limitation alone, and not from the addition of any exernal drive, the concept of obligation arises to extend the maxim of self-love also to the happiness of others.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.1.1.§8)
                        A reaction: This is the heroic and optimistic part of Kant's philosophy, the attempt to derive altruism from pure reason. The claim seems to be that maxims don't motivate until they have been universalised. I fear that only altruism could add such motivation.
23. Ethics / D. Deontological Ethics / 5. Persons as Ends
Everyone (even God) must treat rational beings as ends in themselves, and not just as means
                        Full Idea: In the order of ends, man (and every rational being) is an end in himself, i.e., he is never to be used merely as a means for someone (even for God) without at the same time being himself an end.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II.V)
                        A reaction: The worry here is that Kant has set up an exam that you have to pass before you can be treated as a moral end. Animals and the ecosystem will fail the exam, and even some human beings will be borderline cases. We should respect everything.
23. Ethics / D. Deontological Ethics / 6. Motivation for Duty
A holy will is incapable of any maxims which conflict with the moral law
                        Full Idea: A holy will is one which is incapable of any maxims which conflict with the moral law
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.1.1.§7)
                        A reaction: If such a will is 'incapable' of conflicting with moral law, it will not need to think or assess before action. This means that Kant's moral ideal can ultimately exclude the free-thinking intellect. Kant is describing a state of true Aristotelian virtue.
Reason cannot solve the problem of why a law should motivate the will
                        Full Idea: How a law in itself can be the direct motive of the will (which is the essence of morality) is an insoluble problem for the human reason.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.1.III)
                        A reaction: If that is the great man's final word, then it is tempting to switch to an empirical moral theory, such as that of Hobbes or Hume or E.O. Wilson, which starts from what motivations are available, and builds morality up from that.
25. Social Practice / F. Life Issues / 4. Suicide
A permanent natural order could not universalise a rule permitting suicide
                        Full Idea: The maxim of freely disposing of my life could not hold as a universal law of nature, …because no one could choose to end his life, for such an arrangement could not constitute a permanent natural order.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.1.1.I)
                        A reaction: This sort of claim brings out the advantanges of Aristotelian 'particularism' (expounded by Dancy). Obviously universal suicide isn't promising, but no one wants that. A few suicides in extreme cases will have no effect at all on the natural order.
28. God / A. Divine Nature / 6. Divine Morality / b. Euthyphro question
Obligation does not rest on the existence of God, but on the autonomy of reason
                        Full Idea: It is not to be understood that the assumption of the existence of God is necessary as a ground for all obligation in general (for this rests, as has been shown, solely on the autonomy of reason itself).
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II.V)
                        A reaction: This shows that Kant agrees with Plato about the Euthyphro Question - that is, they both think that morality is logically and naturally prior to any gods. I agree. Why would we admire or worship or obey gods if we didn't think they were good?
28. God / B. Proving God / 2. Proofs of Reason / c. Moral Argument
We have to postulate something outside nature which makes happiness coincide with morality
                        Full Idea: The existence must be postulated of a cause of the whole of nature, itself distinct from nature, which contains the ground of the exact coincidence of happiness with morality.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II.V)
                        A reaction: I can see that we need a concept of how happiness could be made proportional to morality, but I can't make sense of the assumption that it is actually possible, and hence something must exist that would achieve it.
Belief in justice requires belief in a place for justice (heaven), a time (eternity), and a cause (God)
                        Full Idea: To believe in justice in an unjust world, you have to believe in a place of perfect justice (heaven), a time for perfect justice (eternity), and a cause of perfect justice (God).
                        From: report of Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II.V) by PG - Db (ideas)
                        A reaction: Compare Boethius in Idea 5765. I can see that we might need to grasp the ideals of eternal justice in order to understand morality, but belief in their genuine possibility, or even actuality, doesn't seem to follow.
28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / a. Cosmological Proof
To know if this world must have been created by God, we would need to know all other possible worlds
                        Full Idea: We can't infer the existence of God from knowledge of this world, because we should have to know all possible worlds in order to compare them - in short, we should have to be omniscient - in order to say that it is possible only through a God.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II.VI)
                        A reaction: A nice remark, but not wholly convincing. This argument would block all attempts to work out necessities a priori, such as those of maths and logic. Must we know all possible worlds intimately to know that 2+2 is always 4?
28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / c. Teleological Proof critique
Using God to explain nature is referring to something inconceivable to explain what is in front of you
                        Full Idea: To have recourse to God in explaining the arrangements of nature is not a physical explanation but a confession that one has come to the end of philosophy, since one assumes something of which one has no concept to conceive what is before one's eyes.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II.VI)
                        A reaction: Hume had many objections to the design argument, some of them positively sarcastic, but none as ruthless as this, since Kant (here) seems to find God to be a totally empty concept, and hence a complete non-starter as explanation for anything.
From our limited knowledge we can infer great virtues in God, but not ultimate ones
                        Full Idea: Since we know only a small part of the world, and cannot compare it with all possible worlds, we can infer from the order, design and magnitude to a wise, beneficent and powerful Author, but not that He is all-knowing, all-good, and all-powerful.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II.VI)
                        A reaction: This is very much in the spirit of David Hume, who inferred from the flaws in the world that God did not seem to be entirely competent. Hume is also more imaginative, in seeing that God might be a committee, or a hired workman.
28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 4. God Reflects Humanity
In all naturalistic concepts of God, if you remove the human qualities there is nothing left
                        Full Idea: One can confidently challenge all pretended natural theologians to cite one single definitive attribute of their object, of which one could not irrefutably show that, when everything anthropomorphic is removed, only the word remains.
                        From: Immanuel Kant (Critique of Practical Reason [1788], I.II.II.VI)
                        A reaction: This idea derives from Hume's very empiricist view of our understanding of God (Idea 2185), but Kant is (remarkably) more hostile than Hume, because he actually implies that most people's concept of God is totally vacuous.