--> constructivism; value is a product of human will.

“this will…must be the supreme good and the condition of every other, even of the desire of happiness.”

Identifies the will with reason:

 “[reason’s] true destination must be to produce a will, nor merely good as a means to something else, but good in itself, for which reason was absolutely necessary.”

First proposition:
 Only actions done from duty have moral worth.
 

Moral worth = morally praiseworthy

Two clarifications:
Not sufficient to believe you’re acting on duty.
Must do the right thing for the right reason.

Motivational Dualism:

 Inclination and Duty

Example of honest shopkeeper:

1.  Self-interest (inclination)
2.  Sympathy (inclination)
3.  Duty

The good will is one that determines action on the basis of duty.

Schiller one criticized Kant with the following poem:

       Gladly I serve my friends, but alas I do it with pleasure.
       Hence I am plagued with doubt that I am a virtuous person
  To this the answer is given:
       Surely, you only resource is to try to despise them entirely,
  And then with aversion do what your duty enjoins you.

Captain Hartroy From “A Story of Conscience” illustrates Kant’s point.

He sympathizes with Dramer Braune because Braune saved his life.  However, he knows that duty compels him to take his life as a punishment for treason and espionage.

“Mr. Brune, whatever your conscience may permit you to be, you saved my life at what you must have believed the cost of your own.  Until I saw you yesterday when halted by my sentinel I believed you dead—thought that you had suffered the fate which through my own crime you might easily have escaped…Ah, Brune, Brune, that was well done—that was great—that—”
  The captain’s voice failed him; the tears were running down his face and sparkled upon his beard and his breast…
  Captain Hartroy had recovered his composure.  He turned to the officer and said: “Lieutenant, go to Captain Graham and say that I direct him to assume command of the battalion and parade it outside the parapet.  This gentleman is a deserter and a spy; he is to be shot to death in the presence of the troops.  He will accompany you, unbound and unguarded.”

Second proposition:
 “an action done from duty derives its moral worth, not from the purpose which is to be attained by it, but from the maxim by which it is determined” (p. 305).

Intention not consequences

A maxim is rule of action.  It consists of an action and a purpose:
 I will do A in order to bring about P.

For example:
 I will donate to charity in order to relieve suffering.
 I will make a false promise in order to gain money.
 

Third proposition:
 “Duty is the necessity of acting from respect for the [moral] law”

  --> What kind of necessity?

Obligation grounded in conflict between desire and duty.
(e..g. Chocolat clip)

Kant’s point is phenomenological:

We only experience the moral law (our duty) as an obligation when it conflicts with our desires.

It is this experience that grounds our concept of obligation and duty.
Since God and angels (holy wills) do not have natural inclinations, they do not experience the conflict.  Thus, they do not experience the moral law as an imperative:
“from [the holy will’s] subjective constitution it can only be determined by the conception of good.”

The law provides imperatives, i.e. commands or ‘oughts’.
 
Two kinds:
 Hypothetical Imperative:  what one ought to do, given certain desires.
  If you desire D, then you ought to do act A
 
Categorical Imperative: what one ought to do regardless of desire.
  You ought to do A
Note: not all hypothetical imperatives will be of the ‘if…then’ form, and some categorical imperatives might be.

Basketball players ought to practice their freethrows. (HI)
If you’ve made a promise, then you ought to honor it. (CI)

Morality must be categorical, so it cannot be grounded in desire or sentiment.

You can escape a hypothetical imperative by giving up the desire:
‘I don’t want to be a good basketball player’

You cannot escape a moral command by giving up the desire.
‘I don’t want to keep my promise’

Need two modes of evaluation:

  an action has moral worth if it is done for the sake of duty.
  an action is morally correct if its maxim passes the Categorical Imperative

The Categorical Imperative:

Act only on that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.

In order to apply the CI in concrete cases, apply the following procedure:

Step 1: Formulate the maxim
I shall do A in C in order to bring about E.

Note: you must achieve the appropriate level of generality in A and C.
Also, you must assume the maxim is sincere.

Step 3: Imagine an adjusted social world where:
all the same natural laws hold (including facts about human nature)
the universalized maxim is a law of nature (everyone has internalized the maxim)

Step 4: Ask the following questions:

1.  Would my maxim still be effective/practical?
2.  Would I be willing to live in such a world (i.e. in a world in which people acted on a similiar maxim toward me).

•   Treat her as having intrinsic value (not merely instrumental to your ends)
•   The issue is respect and dignity

The waitress is a means to your getting your sandwich, but:
if you treat her as worthy of respect, regardless of what she can do for you, then you treat her as a means and an end in herself.

Again, Captain Hartroy and Dramer Braune provide an example.

When exposed as a Confederate spy, Braune beseeches Hartroy:
My life is fairly yours, but if you wish it taken in a more formal way than by your own hand, and if you are willing to spare me the indignity of marching into camp at the muzzle of your pistol, I promise you that I will neither resist, escape, nor remonstrate, but will submit to whatever penalty may be imposed.

While reminding Braune of his crime, Hartroy allows him to maintain his dignity:
The officer lowered his pistol, uncocked it, and thrust it into its place in his belt.  Brune advanced a step, extending his right hand.  “It is the hand of traitor and a spy,” said the officer coldly, and did not take it.  The other bowed.
  “Come,” said the captain, “let us go to the camp; you shall not die until to-morrow morning.”
  He turned his back upon his prisoner, and these two enigmatical men retraced their steps and soon passed the sentinel, who expressed his general sense of things by a needless and exaggerated salute to his commander.
 

What grounds this?

Christian:  all humans have a soul

Kantian: rational agency (will) is the source of all value

“Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good, without qualification, except a Good Will”
 

Combining Universalizability and Respect

Competing approaches to world hunger:

Utilitarianism:  If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening without sacrificing anything of comparable moral worth, we ought morally to do so (Singer).

Kant says, “it is impermissible not to promote the well-being of others.”  It is to fail to take into account the vulnerability of the world’s poor toward the affluent.  It fails to given them intrinsic respect and dignity.

How much do we give?

It is a duty to give one’s fair share, where a fair share is determined by universalizing one’s maxim.