19. Formulation of the categorical imperative by I. Kant

The main problem of ethics Immanuel Kant - the problem of human freedom. It was the main problem of the era. I. Kant deduces the mutual equality of all people. Another meaning of I. Kant’s solution to this problem is that the thinker explains human freedom by the dominance of man, his right to dispose of things.

The most precise formula of autonomy, which is the starting point of his judgments, was given by I. Kant in the Metaphysical Foundations of Legal Science. According to his formula, our freedom depends on the fact that the connection between sensibility and behavior does not have the character of direct necessity, but is presented as a conditionality.

In an animal, an external stimulus excites an instinctive reaction, but in a person it gives rise only to the desire for satisfaction, to which an instinctive reaction would lead. As a result, in the act of will, motivation is autonomous, and the certainty of will is overcome by sensory stimulus. The difference between autonomously motivated behavior and behavior that is determined by external conditions is the difference between animal and human levels of life.

Kant thereby explains the highest ontological value of man in relation to nature. As a being capable of autonomous motivation, man becomes an "end in himself," while the rest of the animals are mere "means." This ontology is, of course, valid only from the point of view of moral behavior, but not from a theoretical point of view.

In the introduction to the Critique of Practical Reason, Kant writes about freedom as the "argument for the existence" of the moral law. After that, the philosopher proceeds to deduce the moral law. Man's behavior according to the moral law is determined by the fact that the people about whom I perform any action show the same autonomy as I do, or that they are ends in themselves, but never means to the cause of someone else. Therefore, the formula of the categorical imperative, which determines the content of moral behavior, is: "Act in such a way that you use a person for yourself as well as for another, always as an end and never only as a means."

According to a more pathetic but less precise formula from the Critique of Practical Reason, the moral law prescribes the inviolability of the other person ("The other person must be holy to you").

It must be added to the formula of the moral law that the moral law is built on the dualism of the natural character of man and duty, from which it follows that man is a being capable of free decision, which distinguishes him from animals. Moral behavior acts as a limiter of personal egoism, which follows from the instinct of self-preservation.

Thus, moral behavior, according to I. Kant, is peculiar in that, firstly, it is in accordance with the law, and secondly, its motivation is the dignity of a person.

Author: Zubanova S.G.

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