Immanuel kant biography summary questions

Buy Study Guide

1. 1

   Kant insists that situations, incentives, outcomes, and emotions can't be the basis for moral judgments.

   Do you agree or disagree?

   Agreeing with Kant, we might say that situations and emotions are hardly the basis for moral judgments, precisely because they are situational and emotional.

   Immanuel kant biography summary questions and answers

   They will never yield judgments that we expect others to agree with universally, and Kant argues persuasively that this universality is what separates moral judgments from statements of pleasure. If we don't expect all rational beings to agree, what we are really saying is, "I did what made me feel good," which is hardly the basis for a morality.

   On the other hand, Kant's abstract mode of arguing leads him to admit that it is entirely possible that nobody in the history of the world has ever acted morally. Kant believes that this does not necessarily disqualify his argument—indeed, just because no one acts mo