immanuel kant on immortality, justice and right
TRANSCRIPT
ON IMMORTALITY, JUSTICE AND RIGHT
SOURCES FOR THIS PRESENTATION
KANT’S BIOGRAPHY : http://www.biography.com/people/immanuel-kant-9360144#synopsis
CRITIQUE OF PRACTICAL REASON: http://www.enotes.com/topics/critique-practical-reason
JUSTICE: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-virtue/ JUSTICE: http://rocket.csusb.edu/~
tmoody/F05%20191%20kantian_ethics.htm RIGHT: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-social-political/ INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY BY DANIEL J. SULLIVAN
(COPYRIGHT 2013 BY TAN BOOKS NORTH CAROLINA)
HIS LIFE AND HIS WORKS
HIS LIFE AND WORKS
Born on April 22, 1724 in Konigsberg, East Prussia Attended school in Collegium Fridiricianum, a school that taught
classicism and the university of Konigsberg where he took philosophy, mathematics and physics.
His father is Johann Georg Cant while his mother is Anna Regina Cant
His father died in 1746, forcing him to stop his studies to help his family, but he returned to the university of Konigsberg in 1755
“THE CENTRAL FIGURE OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY”
HIS LIFE AND WORKS Became a part of the university of Konigsberg’s faculty in 1770,
teaching metaphysics and logic. But even before this, he was already a lecturer and tutor at the said university.
1781 – THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASONHe attempted to explain how reason and
experiences interact with thought and understanding. CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE - stating that
morality is derived from rationality and all moral judgments are rationally supported. What is right is right and what is wrong is wrong; there is no grey area.
HIS LIFE AND WORKS
OTHER WORKS: THE CRITIQUE OF PRACTICAL REASON CRITIQUE OF JUDGEMENT
Died in Konigsberg on February 12, 1804
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
Typically found alongside Kant’s discussions of the postulate of God. He regards both as necessary conditions for the realization of the ideal Highest Good.
The premise of immortality was found in the “incomplete harmony between morality and its consequences in the world.”
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
Preface of the Critique of Practical Reason:“The belief in immortality is based
on a notable characteristic of our nature, never to be capable of being satisfied by what is temporal”
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
Kant’s first argument for immortality basing himself on the principle of purposiveness:
As nothing is purposeless each organ or faculty into the world has its own specific claim that human life as whole too, must have its own end, although it is an end not in this life but in a future life.
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
The highest good is a necessary object of the will Holiness, or complete fitness of intentions to the moral law is
a necessary condition of the highest good. Holiness cannot be found in a sensuous rational being. It can
be reached only in an endless progress and since holiness is required, such endless progress toward it is the true object of the will such progress can be endless only if the personality of the rational being endures endlessly.
The highest good can be made real, therefore only on “the supposition of the immortality of the soul.”
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
KANT GIVES THE MORAL ARGUMENTS FOR THE SOUL:
In the first critique (pure reason, 1781), the purpose of the afterlife is to provide a domain for ideal highest good’s distribution of happiness.
In the second critique, (practical reason, 1788), Kant revises the said postulate:
[IMMORTALITY] is necessary for our becoming worthy of that happiness
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
Kant argued in the second critique that we need immortality not to achieve happiness but rather in order to make endless progress toward the complete conformity of dispositions with the moral law, that is, toward virtue or worthiness to be happy.
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
THE POSTULATE OF IMMORTALITY, AS WELL AS OF GOD AND FREEDOM, CANNOT BE KNOWN BUT CAN ONLY BE THOUGHT.
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
ON JUSTICE
JUSTICE are the things one has a moral obligation to do.
ON JUSTICE
NEGATIVE MORALITYHe calls this “Justice” for Justice has a number of roughly equivalent commandments for how one
must act. one must ALWAYS be just.
Kant calls this having a “perfect” or “strict” obligation
ON JUSTICE
Positive morality – this is what he calls, “benevolence.” this is never a strict
duty like justice according to Kant. One is not morally required to always be
benevolent. But one does have a moral duty to be benevolent sometimes and
as much as one can.
ON JUSTICE
We have a strict or “perfect” duty to always act justly
We do not have a duty to always act beneficently
We do have an “imperfect” duty: to sometimes act beneficently
ON JUSTICE
BENEFICENCE – Going above and beyond the call of duty; well doing; the activity of benefiting others
Going beyond mere justice to assist people with their goals is to act beneficently.
ON JUSTICE
THE FIRST DUTY OF JUSTICE IS TO NEVER TREAT PEOPLE AE MERE MEANS TO ONE’S OWN ENDS.
Treating persons as ends in themselves is ACTING JUSTLY AND BENEFICIENTLY
ON JUSTICE
ON RIGHT
Right (Recht) = both law (gesetz) and justice (gerechtigkeit)
Right implies systematicity and lawlikeness like universality and necessity.
ON RIGHT
In the state of right, “each remains free to seek happiness in whatever way he thinks best, so long as he does not violate the lawful freedom and rights of his fellow subjects at large.
ON RIGHT
REPORT BY:POST. SEAN BERNARD D. TANAugustinian Vicariate of the Orient
I – A.B. Philosophy | STVI Diliman
ON IMMORTALITY, JUSTICE AND RIGHT