the first thing you need to know about that you do them for the right reasons

cants moral philosophy is that he's not the only genuinely good actions are the
trying to convince you that morality ones that you do purely out of a respect
exists if you're one of those people who for the moral rules whatever those moral
goes oh morality is just an illusion and rules are and will come to them shortly
it doesn't really exist well then you're crucially doing what somebody else tells
probably still going to think that when you to do can't be good because whether
you're done reading Kant what he is it's God your parents or whoever if
doing is saying come on lads we all know you're just following orders you're not
that people behave in a way that they acting from the goodwill you're acting
call moral at least some of the time in anticipation of some reward
morality it's a thing we do it and we all punishment the goodwill has to come
talk about it so what's the best way to from you
try and understand it he starts by that's why moral reasons are so powerful
asking what does it mean to be good and and have such a hold on you it's because
he says that the only thing that is good they actually come from you morality is
without qualification is the good will a system of rules that you place on
the will to do the right thing yourself respect for the rules always
everything else money courage comes as a result of being a member of
intelligence good looks those things can something so I respect the rules of
be used for good or evil but the will to YouTube because I'm a youtuber I respect
do good is always good and it's not good the rules of my country because I'm a
because of what you can get out of it citizen Kant thought that moral rules
your rewards for being good again you come to us as a result of being rational
could use them for good or ill the good beings as a result of having a mind
will must be good in itself rational here just means being able to
we don't always act according to the listen to reasons and Kant thought that
good will we are imperfect and sometimes part of being able to do that is that
we act according to our other desires there are some reasons that we cannot
but acting from the good will Kant says ignore and that apply to everyone okay
is the only way to really be moral this might all seem a little bit
consider a bartender who gets a new overwhelming so let me try and give you
customer in their bar the bartender a peek behind the curtain here what Kant
could give the customer the wrong change is trying to do is ground morality in
and save a bit of money but he decides logic he's trying to say that being bad
not to he gives the customer the correct actually does not make sense try as you
change Kant asks why did he do that if might you cannot escape the laws of
he did it because he was afraid of logic and Kant is trying to make
getting caught or because he wanted morality as inescapable as logic by
repeat business or even just because it saying that ultimately it comes from the
makes him happy well then that's not a same place the built-in restrictions on
genuinely good action because it wasn't the ways that it makes sense for people
motivated by the goodwill it was to think
motivated by the desire to get something this leads us to the categorical
else for Kant it's not the consequences imperative the categorical imperative
of your actions that matter so much is just means the thing that you have to do
all the time regardless of circumstance a way that you treat humanity whether in
it's an imperative an order which your own person or the person of another
applies categorically I ought never to always as an end and never simply as a
act except in such a way that I could means this calls us to respect other
also will that my maxim should become a people's status as beings of moral worth
universal law now this is often as well as to respect ourselves
misunderstood so stick with me Kant is and cleave to our own inner moral voices
not saying that you should only do this formulation does prompt some
something if it would be good for interesting questions for instance when
everyone to do that's not what he's I go to the bar
saying if everybody stole stuff all the am I not treating the barman as a means
time yeah the world would be a pretty not an end I'm only talking to him
rotten place to live but that's not why because of what I can get out of him
can't thinks you shouldn't steal he says right same is true of doctors taxi
that you should only act if it makes drivers most people really and yes
sense for you to will everybody to act that's true but it's not really a
in the same way take lying for instance problem for Kant so long as we remember
sometimes you might want to tell a lie that those barman and taxi drivers and
Kant asks you to consider whether it so on have their own ends and it's not
makes sense to will that everybody lies okay for us to step on them like I
whenever they want to in a world where wouldn't enslave that barman and force
everybody lies the whole concept of him to serve me drinks that really would
truth and lies would break down nobody violate the categorical imperative but
would trust each other and in such a as long as he is producing the service
world you would not want to lie because voluntarily then that's okay for me to
it wouldn't get you any advantage consume the product of it now if you've
there'd be no point if everyone was seen my series on Karl Marx you might be
doing it remember the moral law has to saying well hang on a minute Ollie do
come from you from your will so if you people really produce goods voluntarily
will to tell lies you have in fact under global capitalism and yeah okay
contradicted yourself just as surely as that's a discussion we could have but
if you broke the laws of logic your will that's how it's supposed to work for cat
must be consistent that's what the anyway the final formulation reminds us
categorical imperative really says it's of the responsibility of being a moral
like thy will shall make sense you just being act as though through your Maxim's
gotta ask yourself does it make sense you could become a legislator of
for me to will everybody to do what I universal laws here Kant asks us to
want to do can't try to explain the remember that we are always in a sense
categorical imperative in a number of setting an example to other people in
different ways which is why he gives not what we do we contribute to what is
just one but three different normal human behavior and we have a
formulations of it he thought that moral choice to make about whether to make
rules were universal just as you are that normal behavior good or not he also
capable of listening to moral reasons so reminds us that the moral law has to
am i and so is everybody else this leads come from us we place it on ourselves
us to the second formulation act in such and sometimes we might have to do that
against what our other desires are of
course if you're very clever you'll have
noticed that cants moral philosophy
really depends on free will if you can't
freely place the moral law on yourself
then this whole project isn't going to
fly that's something that didn't escape
his notice either and it was central to
his work on free will which is another
story for another time so that's cants
moral philosophy if you're ever lost
just remember that the moral law has to
come from within you and its chief
commandment is thy will shout makes
sense leave a comment telling me what
you thought and for more philosophical
videos from me every Friday please
subscribe and if you'd like to support
me in my efforts to put education onto
YouTube then you can find philosophy
tube on patreon this episode was filmed
in YouTube space London as part of the
YouTube's next up creator camp I want to
say thank you to Carly TOEFL and Cameron
Sanderson for being in it with me you
can see them in the bar scenes and you
can find links to their channels fellow
English (auto-generated)
Immanuel Kant is a philosopher who tried to prone to corruption. It was this awareness that
work out how human beings could be led him to formulate what
good and kind outside of the exaltations and would be his life's project,
blandishments of the desire to replace religious authority with the
traditional religions. He was born in 1724, in the authority of reason,
Baltic city of Königsberg, that is human intelligence. When it came to
which at that time was part of Prussia and now religion, Kant summed up his views in a
belongs to Russia, renamed book entitled "Religion within the bounds of
Kaliningrad. Kant's parents were very modest, reason alone". Here he argued that
his father was a saddle maker although historical religions had all been wrong
Kant never had much money, a fact he dealt in the content of what they
with cheerfully by living very believed, they had latched onto a great need to
modestly. It wasn't until he was in his fifties that promote ethical behavior,
he became a fully salaried a need which still remained. It was in this context
professor and attained a moderate degree of that Kant came up with the idea
prosperity. His family were deeply for which he's perhaps still most famous, what
religious and very strict. Later in life he called the "Categorical
Kant did not have any conventional religious Imperative". This strange sounding term first
beliefs, but he was acutely appeared in a horrendously named
aware of just how much religion had contributed work "Groundwork of the metaphysics of
to his parents' ability to morals". The Categorical Imperative states:
cope with all the hardships of their existence and What did Kant mean by this this? This was only
how useful religion could a very
be in fostering social cohesion and community. formal restatement of an idea that's been around
Kant was physically very for a long time,
slight, frail, and anything but good looking, yet something we meet within all the main religions:
he was very sociable and some Kant was offering a handy way of testing the
of his colleagues used to criticize him for going morality of
to too many parties. When an action by imagining how it would be if it were
eventually he was able to entertain, he had rules generally practiced and you
about conversation at his were the victim of it. It might be tempting to filter
table. At the start of a dinner party he decreed a few pads of paper from the
that people should swap stories station recovered at work, it seems like a small
about what had been happening recently, then thing. But if everyone did this,
there should be a major phase of the cupboard and society at large would need a
reflective discourse in which those present lot of guards. Similarly, if you
attempted to clarify an have an affair and keep it quiet from your partner
important topic, and finally there should be a you might feel that's okay
closing period of hilarity so that but the categorical imperative comes down
everyone left in a good mood. He died in 1804 in against this because you would then
his eightieth year in have to embrace the idea that it would be
Königsberg, having rarely felt the need to spend equally okay for your partner to have
any time outside the city in affairs and not tell you. The categorical
which he was born. Kant was writing at a highly imperative is designed to shift our
interesting period in history we perspective, to get us to see our own behavior in
now know as The Enlightenment. In an essay less immediately personal
called "What is Enlightenment?" terms and thereby recognize some of its
published in 1784, Kant proposed that the limitations. Kant went on to argue that
identifying feature of his age was the core idea of the categorical imperative could
its growing secularism. Intellectually, Kant be stated in another way:
welcomed the declining belief in This was intended as a replacement for the
Christianity, but in a practical sense he was also Christian injunction for universal love,
alarmed by it. He was a the command to "love one's neighbor." To treat a
pessimist about human character and believed person as an end, for Kant meant
that we are by nature intensely keeping in view that they had a life of their own
in which they were seeking happiness
and fulfillment and deserve justice and fair and insistent reminder of our common universal
treatment. The categorical being. A pretty flower is just
imperative, Kant argued, is the voice of our own as attractive to the tired farm worker as to the
rational selves. It's what we prince. The graceful flight of
all truly believe when we're thinking sensibly, it's a swallow is as lovely to a child as to the most
the rule our own intelligence learned
gives us. Kant extended his thinking about the professor. For Kant, the role of art is to embody
categorical imperative into the the most important ethical ideas
political sphere. He believed that the central duty It's a natural extension of philosophy. Kant held
of government is to ensure that we needed to have art
liberty, but he sensed there was something continually before us, so as to benefit from vivid
terribly wrong with the illustrations and memorable
ordinary definition of freedom or liberty, it should symbols of good behavior and thereby keep the
not be thought of in wayward parts of ourselves in check
libertarian terms as the ability to do just Kant's books were dense, abstract, and highly
whatever we want. We are free only intellectual, but in them he
when we act in accordance with our own best sketched a very important project that remains
natures, and we are slaves whenever crucial to this day. He wanted to
we are under the rule of our own passions or understand how the better, more reasonable
those of others. As Kant put it, parts of our natures could be
So freedom isn't an absence of government, a strengthened so as to reliably win out over our
free society isn't one that allows people more inbuilt weaknesses and
and selfishness. As Kant saw it, he was engaged in
more opportunity to do whatever they happen to the task of developing a secular,
fancy. It's one that helps rational version of what religions had, very
everyone become more reasonable. The good imperfectly, always attempted to do,
state represents the rational element help us to be good
in us all. It rules according to a universally valid
will
under which everyone can be free, so
government ideally is the externalized,
institutionalized version of the best parts of
ourselves. It might be a bit
surprising at first to discover that in 1793, Kant
published a major work on
beauty and art, "The Critique of Judgment." It
might seem like a bit of a sideline
for a thinker otherwise concerned with politics
and ethics, but Kant held that
his ideas about art and beauty were the
cornerstones of his entire philosophy
As we've been seeing, Kant thought that life
involved a constant struggle between our
better selves and our passions, between duty
and pleasure. Beauty, Kant
especially liked roses, vines, apple trees and
birds, delights us in a very special
and important way. It's a reminder of and goad
to our better selves, unlike
so much else in our lives, our love of beauty is in
Kant's word "disinterested,"
it takes us out of our narrow, selfish concerns
but in a charming delightful
way without being stern or demanding. The
beauty of nature is a continual, quiet,