After take notes in class about Kant, and after read his book: Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, I am able to talk a little bit about his ideas and beliefs. In my opinion, the most interesting subject that he touched was the good will. He believes and argues that the good will is the only thing in the universe that is always completely good. It is the only good thing without instructions and qualifications. Kant does not say that we cannot think about other things (pleasure, wealth, honor, virtue, etc) and understand them to be good. He is saying that if we completely think that is true from his perspective, the only thing that is truly good is the good will. To be clearer, if we think about some others good things such as intelligence and judgement, those are good things but if the will is not good, it can be use for evil as well for good. The will in itself is what decide how you are going to use your "talents". Some others examples: courage, resolution, purpose. Those are things that we can develop, but by themselves those things can be use for the bad. Someone who robs a bank use his courage to do it, and we consider that it is not good.
What makes the good will good? Well, according to Kant, we know if our good will is good because it is good itself and when we do not look at the consequences and effects to our actions, we must use only our willing. We should not have do anything for a reason, for a motive.
My point in this post is tho challenge you to think as Kant. Do you completely agree with his beliefs? Specially do you agree that the good will is the only good thing in the universe? Is it what determine our others actions and intentions? And finally, I would like to understand a little bit more about What duty is, since it is the answer in what makes the good will good.
Diego, i agree with your examples and thoughts behind goodwill; furthermore, I believe you explained Kant's viewpoints quite thoroughly. The goodwill is the only thing in the world that is good without any qualifications and restrictions. The goodwill is the only thing good in itself. I liked your example on courage and bank robbing. that could be a trait of good will but it is not used for good. The goodness of a goodwill is not derived from the result it produces. It is because it is the morally right thing to do. I also agree with what you quoted by Kant; thus, the function of reasoning behind a goodwill is to produce a will that is good in itself. Take the old lady walking across the street for example. We don't do it because maybe she will give you a couple dollars or to impress a girl beside you, the duty is done because it is the right thing to do and there shouldn't be a motive behind it. It is done for goodwill.
ReplyDeleteTo also touch on duty as you said you weren't quite clear with its means maybe I can help a little bit. There are 3 propositions of duty.
1. Is that a human action is morally good, not because it's done from immediate inclinations, but rather that it is done for the sake of duty. You do what is right because in our society it should be your duty.
2. An action done from duty has its moral worth, not in the purpose it attains but from a formal principle or maxim- the principle of doing one's duty whatever it may be.
3. Act out of reverence for the law.
These make the goodwill good because if you can obey these duties(which is very unlikely) our society would be very different. Everything would run smoothly. There would be no speeding, killing, etc. All of society would according to the law, the goodwill, and what is morally right.
These are the three proposition of duties i hope you find them helpful.
Sincce I missed class Friday, you were really helpful Colton. I hope we can discuss more about this subject next class. Thank you
ReplyDeleteI agree that your post was very thorough. I'm not so sure that the good will is purely good. There are plenty of instances when people do things with good intentions, but the end results are horrible. I know Kant says that we can not judge an action by its consequence, but by the intention behind it. However, I feel that certain consequences outweigh the righteousness of the good will. For an example, two cars get in an accident and the family in one car ends up dying. The family in the other car lives, but the driver fills guilty because s/he was tired while driving. In the case, the intention was not to kill a family, but the consequences of s/he's actions lead to death. No, his or her intentions was not wrong, but as a society we may still judge that person or even seek punishment for that person.
ReplyDelete*feels guilty
ReplyDelete