The Kantian Revolution: From Metaphysics to Epistemology

In this paper, I will argue Kant’s categorical imperative's through a condensed summation of his Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals with specific regard for the need for categorical imperative and how it's flaws can disband the efficacy of his claim.

In “Towards a New Heaven: Revolution in Astronomy,” some of the greatest achievements of the Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth century were dominated by medicine, mechanics, and astronomers. Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, and Isaac Newton were some of the brilliant individuals that magnified the revolutionary astronomy. These astronomers challenged the conception and beliefs through the nature of the external world.

Immanuel Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals serves the purpose of founding moral theory from moral judgment and examining whether there is such thing as a ‘moral law’ that is absolute and universal. In chapter three of his work, he discusses the relationship between free will and the moral law and claims “A free will and a will under moral laws are one and the same.” He stands firm in his belief that moral law is what guides a will that is free from empirical desires. To be guided by moral laws it would require men to be ideal rational agents.

There is very little question as to what action a strict deontologist would do in the scenario for this assignment he or she would unequivocally adhere to his or her duty. The more pressing question, of course, revolves around just where that duty lies. For a deontologist, that duty would lie with the job at hand and its responsibilities. As one who took an oath to only program software in accordance to the company that he or she works for which is essentially operating as an extension of the government that wishes the programmer to 'push the button' and destroy millions of innocent lives in World War II it would strongly appear that such an individuals would consider it his or her duty to effectively start World War III.

Lying the one form of communication that is the untruth expressed to be the truth. Immanuel Kant states that lying is morally wrong in all possible ways. His hatred for lying has made him “just assumed that anyone who lied would be operating with a maxim like this: tell a lie so as to gain some benefit.”(Landau,pp.171) This is true for a vast number of people, they will lie in order to gain a certain benefit from the lie rather than the truth.It is similar to if you play a game of truth or dare, some rather pick a dare because it would release them from having to tell the truth. However, those who do pick truth still have a chance to lie to cover up the absolute truth.People lie in order to cover who they truly are. Even if you lie to benefit someone or something else, it would not matter to Kant because he does not care for the consequences. If you lie but have a good intention it is not the same for Kant, he would argue that you still lied no matter the consequence that a lie is a lie. “ While lying, we accuse others for not being transparent. While being hypocrites ourselves, we expect others to be sincere.” (Dehghani,Ethics) We know how it feels to be lied to by a person, so in order to not have the feeling returned, we hope the person will be truthful. We rather be surrounded by truthful people constantly despite all the lies that some people tell. No

Society, as we know it, is only possible through humans acting in accordance with a universal moral code. Because we as humans are rational beings and have free choice, we can make our own decisions, can hold ourselves to a standard that we ourselves set, and can act in accordance with our standards, as well as set standards for our own society. However, these standards must be held, otherwise they hold no meaning. Kant uses a black and white tactic, in order to determine which actions are moral and immoral. However, Kant’s downfall is his strength. The black and white tactic makes everything very clear, but it lacks the complexity needed to handle more sophisticated problems and decisions. Black and white does not take into account all the shades of gray between, and Kant needs to take into account all the shades of factors that impact human decision-making.

pay back money in order to meet a need of his own. He must consider

There is two views of the form of ethics concerning towards the law. [1] Abel states teleological view is when someone is viewing the existence of the action and deems it as a form of excuse. The second view, a deontological view is the normative ethical position that judges on the morality of an action and based on the action’s adherence to a rule or rules. For example, Immanuel Kant follows a form of deontological because he introduced the form of categorical imperative which states that if any actions are not universal then they are considered immoral.

Immanuel Kant was one of the most important European philosophers and lived from 1724 to 1804. In his time he created Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Metaphysic of Morals. Kant starts by stating that “By identifying a good will as the only unconditional good, he denies that the principles of good willing can be fixed by reference to an objective good or telos at which they aim.” This ties into Kants next part of his work because it describes two shopkeepers that decided to act in the same way towards their customers, but are motivated differently. The shops are relatively located near each other. Both shops want the most business to gain the most profit. One shopkeeper decides to give back correct change only because he wants a good business reputation. This shopkeeper does not want his customers to go elsewhere if they think he is cheating them out of money. The customers could easily walk to another store to avoid being scammed. The other shopkeeper decides to give back the correct change to his customers because he thinks it is morally right to do so. He does this because he thinks it’s right to do this even if his shop business wasn’t affected. Kant states that “Action that would have been done by anyone who had a morally worthy maxim as action in accordance with duty.” This states that the shopkeeper has a duty to do the morally right thing when it comes to his customers. It all leads back to the fundamentals you learned

not do things that are wrong. The difference between knowing if something is right or wrong

In Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Emmanuel Kant's central purpose is to answer: What is the “supreme principle of morality”? He says, "The present groundwork, however, is nothing more than the identification and corroboration of the supreme principle of morality, which by itself constitutes a business that is complete in its purpose and to be separated from every other moral investigation" (Groundwork 4:392). In fielding this question, Kant also presents his theory of freedom. In its purest essence, for Kant, freedom is a property of the will.

Immanuel Kant was an exceptional philosopher who often fantasized about the wonders of the human perception. Through the power of imagination in the human mind Kant was able to postulate possible answers to the great questions of existence. He was daring and bold to wonder what constitutes the beauty of the human soul, how the existence of an all-powerful entity would be possible, and also what do human beings really do to perceive their surroundings. With such notable works as Critiques of Practical Reason, Metaphysics of Morals, and Critique of Judgement, Kant attempted to answer these great questions. Kant asked powerful questions, questions that would have and still do have a lot of controversy surrounding them today. Kant often debated the differences between rationalist and empirical approaches to philosophical issues. Not only were his methods ingenious, but additionally somewhat unorthodox. With this in mind, what did Kant exactly aim to why he abandoned traditional philosophical approaches in his works such as Critiques of Practical Reason and Metaphysics of Morals? Also what prompted him to answer such philosophical conundrums regarding the perception and experience of the self? And finally what exactly was his stance on perceivable reality and the complexity of our world?

“There is no possibility of thinking of anything at all in this world, or even out of it, which can be regarded as good without qualifications, except a good will.” (Kant, pg.7 393). No other thing that may appear good can be unqualifiedly good, as even “Talents of the mind…Gifts of power…[Other] qualities…Have no intrinsic unconditional worth, but they always presuppose, rather, a good will, which restricts the high esteem in which they are otherwise rightly held.” (Kant, pg.7 393-394). So Immanuel Kant introduces the public to his Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, which results not in simply a grounding work, but one that is utterly groundbreaking. This opener, wholly devoted to the establishment of the importance of will and intention, notes the guiding characteristics of a good will. As enumerated previously, Kant recognizes the plausible potential positivity of plenty concepts, but remains of the mind that none of these are good in themselves without the efforts of a good will to guide and restrict them in a manner that perpetuates their positivity.

The Copernican Revolution involves the exchange of a “geocentric” worldview to a “heliocentric” view and is inseparably linked to the “scientific revolution” of the seventeenth century movement that represents a renewal of all scientific knowledge of the time. Contrary to popular belief, the “idea that the Earth was round” was written by many ancient Greek texts, and was supported by many philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Eratosthenes and Ptolemy, among others. (Cohen, 30) During the

Kant’s Copernican revolution is one that has changed the way philosophers look at philosophy in the way that Copernicus transformed the way scientists look at science. It ushered in an era where philosophy was able to be challenged and philosophers strived for the truth. This is how saw knowledge was formed and functions. Kant use the following term explain his ideas and abstract principles about empiricism and rationalism