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1. MORALITY IS EMBEDDED IN HUMAN CAPACITY
Robert Johnaesen, Communication Professor-Northern Illinois University, ETHICS IN HUMAN COMMUNICATION, 3rd ed., 1990, p. 47.
An eighteenth century German philosopher, Kant believed that the uniquely human capacity was a sense of
conscience (moral will, moral reason). To varying degrees, in Kant’s view, all humans possess a sense of right and wrong; universal moral law as apprehended by conscience must be obeyed by all rational beings. Moral imperatives inherent in human nature are categorical.
2. MORAL LAWS ARE FOLLOWED BECAUSE OF BELIEF IN A SUPREME BEING
Immanuel Kant, Former Professor-Konigsberg, CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON, 1929, p. 639. Hence also everyone regards the moral laws as commands; and this the moral laws could not be if they did not connect a priori suitable consequences with their rules, and thus carry with them promises and threats.
But this again they could not do, if they did not reside in a necessary being, as the supreme good, which alone can make such a purposive unity possible.
3. MORAL JUDGMENTS LIES IN THE HUMAN HEART
Immanuel Kant, Former Professor-Konigsberg, LECTURES ON ETHICS, 1963, p. 36-7.
The supreme principle of all moral judgment lies in the understanding: that of the moral incentive to action lies in the heart. This motive is moral feeling. We must guard against confusing the principle of the judgment with the principle of the motive. The first is the norm; the second the incentive. The motive cannot take the place of the rule. Where the motive is wanting, the error is practical; but when the judgment fails the error is theoretical.
VALUES MUST BE RATIONAL AND REASONABLE
1. RULES OF CONDUCT ARE DETERMINED BY REASON
Immanuel Kant, Former Professor-Konigsberg, CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON, 1929, p. 634.
Whether reason is not in the actions through which it prescribes laws, itself again determined by other influences and whether that which, in relation to sensuous impulses, is entitled freedom may not, in relation to higher and more remote operating causes, be nature again, is a question which in the practical field does not concern us, since we are demanding of reason nothing but the rule of conduct; it is a merely speculative question, which we can leave aside so long as we are considering what ought or ought not be done.
2. REASONING LEAD TO LAWS AND REGULATIONS
Immanuel Kant, Former Professor-Konigsberg, CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON, 1929, p. 633-4.
But these considerations, as to what is desirable in respect of our whole state, that is, as to what is good and useful, are based on reason. Reason therefore provides laws which are imperatives, that is, objective laws of freedom, which tell us what ought to happen--although perhaps it never does happen--therein differing from laws of nature, which relate only to that which happens. These laws are therefore to be entitled practical laws.
3. PHILOSOPHY IS THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Immanuel Kant, Former Professor-Konigsberg, LECTURES ON ETHICS, 1963, p. 1.
Philosophy is either theoretical or practical. The one concerns itself with knowledge, the other with the conduct of beings possessed of a free will. The one has Theory, the other Practice for its object--and it is the object that differentiates them. There is another distinction of philosophy into speculative and practical. In general, we call sciences theoretical and practical, without reference to their objects. They are theoretical if they are the ground of the conception of the object; practical, if they are the ground of the exercise of our knowledge of the object.
4. PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY BASED IN ACTION
Immanuel Kant, Former Professor-Konigsberg, LECTURES ON ETHICS, 1963, p. 1-2.
The object of practical philosophy is conduct; that of theoretical philosophy cognition. Practical philosophy, being the philosophy of action, is thus the philosophy which provides rules for the proper use of our freedom, irrespective of particular applications of it. Just as logic deals with the use of understanding in general and not in particular conditions, so does practical philosophy deal with the use of the free will not in specific circumstances, but independently of the particular. Logic provides rules concerning the use of the will.
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