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21415
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Duty is impossible without prior moral feeling, conscience, love and self-respect [Kant]
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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.
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From:
Immanuel Kant (Metaphysics of Morals II:Doctrine of Virtue [1797], 399 Intro XII)
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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.
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21431
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The love of man is required in order to present the world as a beautiful and perfect moral whole [Kant]
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Full Idea:
Love of man is required by itself, in order to present the world as a beautiful moral whole in its full perfection, even if no account is taken of advantages (of happiness).
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From:
Immanuel Kant (Metaphysics of Morals II:Doctrine of Virtue [1797], 458 I.II)
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A reaction:
For me, this illustrates the basic problem with Kant. In the Groundwork he presents morality as arising from pure reason, deriving moral maxims from contradictions, but here we find a totally ungrounded assertion of grand traditional values.
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21437
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All morality directs the will to love of others' ends, and respect for others' rights [Kant]
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Full Idea:
All moral relations of rational beings, which involve a principle of the harmony of the will of one with another, can be reduced to love and respect. Love reduces one's will to another's end, and respect to another's right.
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From:
Immanuel Kant (Metaphysics of Morals II:Doctrine of Virtue [1797], 488 II)
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A reaction:
It all comes out too neat and tidy in Kant. Love doesn't merely focus on another person's 'ends', and respect should be for a lot more than another person's mere 'rights'. They'd have to be natural rights, because some societies restrict rights.
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