Kant’s final formulation states, “act in accordance with the
maxim of a member giving universal laws to a merely possible kingdom of ends.”
At first, this was very confusing. Dr. J explained that it meant to act like a
person who is living with perfectly rational moral agents. People who are
living with these agents are like people who would be living in this perfect
kingdom that is mentioned in the formulation.
A perfect example would be
Ghandi. Many people of all sorts look up Ghandi. If everyone were to act the way
he acted, we would be living in this perfect kingdom. Sadly, this is an
impossible utopian society to achieve. Even though Kant is explaining a perfect
society that is not achievable, he says that if we strive to be like that
person, we will be closer to actually being good willed and moral. This would
then apply itself to the second proposition that he makes, the formal principle
of duty. This states, “an action done from duty has its moral worth not in the
purpose it attains or seeks to attain, but in a formal principle or maxim- the
principle of doing ones duty, whatever that may be.” Once a person finds their
maxim, and continues to do their duty, they would potentially be like the
person that is being described in the perfect kingdom.
I fully agree with the
opinion of Kant in these statements. If we were to all act like people in a
perfect kingdom, we would always be morally rational. This would then make our
world a better place, and in turn, the world would be full of more just and
rational human beings.
I agree with your logic and Kant makes a strong case by telling us to imagine a perfectly moral person and act like that. We would definitely benefit from that ideology in our society. Not only be safe but also progress. Easier said than done however.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. If we were to act in the way Kant proposes than we would make the world a better place. However, realistically I believe it would be rather difficult to act upon that idea.
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