Lesson 2.6: A Fact of Reason

Glossary

Kant’s Philosophical Framework

Metaphysics — The branch of philosophy concerned with the fundamental nature of reality: what exists and what reality is ultimately like.

Phenomenal Realm — Reality as it appears to us through experience.

Noumenal Realm — Reality as it is in itself, independently of how it appears to us. Kant argues that we cannot directly know things as they are in themselves.

Pure Reason — Reason operating independently of particular sensory experiences.

Synthetic A Priori Judgment — A claim that adds substantive information while being knowable independently of particular experiences. Kant thinks some necessary truths about experience and morality have this status.

Freedom — For Kant, a necessary condition of morality. Although we cannot theoretically prove that we are free, moral deliberation requires us to regard ourselves as capable of choosing whether to obey the moral law.

The Foundations of Kantian Ethics

Deontology — A moral approach that evaluates actions according to the principles or duties that guide them rather than merely by their consequences.

Consequentialism — A moral approach that evaluates actions according to the consequences they produce.

Rational Being — A being capable of governing its behavior according to principles rather than simply following instinct or desire.

Moral Law — The universal principles that reason requires rational beings to follow.

Hypothetical Imperative — A conditional command: If you want a particular outcome, then take the action needed to achieve it.

Categorical Imperative — An unconditional command of reason that applies regardless of what you happen to want.

Moral Worth — The special moral value an action has when it is done from duty—because the person respects the moral law, rather than merely acting from self-interest, emotion, or inclination.

Testing Actions with the Categorical Imperative

Maxim — The principle that expresses what you intend to do and why you intend to do it.

Universal Law Formulation — Kant’s instruction to act only on maxims that you could consistently will to become universal laws.

Universalization — Imagining everyone acting according to the same maxim you are considering.

Contradiction — A failure that occurs when universalizing a maxim would undermine the very action, practice, or institution that the maxim depends upon.

Perfect Duty — A strict duty produced when the relevant maxim cannot be consistently universalized. Kant’s examples include prohibitions against false promises and suicide.

Imperfect Duty — A genuine moral obligation that allows flexibility in when and how it is fulfilled, such as developing your talents or helping others.

Duty to Self — An obligation concerning how you treat your own rational nature, dignity, or capacities.

Duty to Others — An obligation concerning how you treat other rational beings.

Respecting Persons

Humanity Formulation — Kant’s command to treat humanity, whether in yourself or another person, always as an end and never merely as a means.

Means — Something used to achieve another goal.

End — Something valued for its own sake rather than simply as a tool for achieving something else.

Treating Someone Merely as a Means — Using another person for your own purposes without adequately respecting that person’s autonomy, choices, dignity, or rational ends.

Dignity — The special moral status Kant associates with rational persons, who must not be treated as mere objects or instruments.

Kant’s Larger Moral Worldview

Highest Good — Kant’s ideal of a condition in which complete moral virtue and happiness are ultimately brought into harmony.

Postulate of Practical Reason — Something that cannot be theoretically proven but that Kant argues we are rationally justified in assuming for practical moral purposes.

Immortality of the Soul — A postulate Kant connects with the idea of indefinite moral progress toward complete virtue.

God — A practical postulate that Kant connects with the possibility that virtue and happiness can ultimately be brought into harmony.

Republicanism — Kant’s political ideal of government by laws compatible with the freedom and equality of citizens rather than hereditary monarchical rule.

Universal Hospitality — Kant’s principle that people should be able to approach and interact peacefully across political borders without automatically being treated as enemies.