Kant Political Leader :: essays research papers

Kant held that nothing was unsloped in itself that good will. In other words, no work on, in and of itself, was either ill-treat or right field. Only the motive of the actor lent the action its morality. If a person acted out of a vested interest (because of a possible consequence) thence the act was non-moralit had no moral implications whatsoever. But, if a person acted because she thought she was doing the right thing, then she was playacting out of good will and the act was a moral act.In Kants view, actions have true moral deserving only when they spring from a recognition of a duty and a choice to discharge it. For example, using Kantian logic, an advertiser who avoided untruthful ad because he was afraid of getting caught and fined would not necessarily be acting morally. However, if the advertiser certifyd a duty to his constituents to tell the truth, and that is the reason he didnt lie, then the act would be a moral act.Kant defined good will as the uniquely human capacity to act concord to ones principles, not out of an expectation of potential consequences. In fact, Kant had learned finished the writings of the Italian philosopher and royal counselor, Niccolo Machiavelli, that basing decisions solely on likely consequences could absolve any action, even the most abhorrent. In his famous treatise, The Prince, Machiavelli had proposed that any action taken by a monarch should be based on an assessment of the best outcome for the monarch himself. Under this guideline (which is to a fault known as egoism), actions such as murder could be excuse if they are in the best interest of the person making the decision. comparable other Enlightenment theorists, Kant believed that human beings were endowed with the ability to reason, and reasoning would logically lead to an understanding of how to construct moral rules to live by. Rational beings would, then, logically abide by the rules they set for themselves. In this, he was in affiliate with the social contractarians. Rules arrived at in this manner would also become morally obligatory, and Kant saw obligation (or duty) as the overriding determinant of morality. He believed that we would recognize our duty when we saw it because we could reason, and reason would lead us logically to recognition.For Kant, there were two obvious types of duties perfect duties and imperfect duties.