Kant believed in the immortality of the soul based on moral arguments. Immortality is necessary for endless moral progress towards virtue and worthiness of happiness. Justice involves strict duties to not treat people merely as means, while beneficence involves imperfect duties to help others. For Kant, right implies lawfulness and justice in a state where each person remains free to pursue happiness without violating others' freedom and rights.
3. SOURCES FOR THIS PRESENTATION
KANT’S BIOGRAPHY : http://www.biography.com/people/immanuel-
kant-9360144#synopsis
CRITIQUE OF PRACTICAL REASON:
http://www.enotes.com/topics/critique-practical-reason
JUSTICE: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-virtue/
JUSTICE:
http://rocket.csusb.edu/~tmoody/F05%20191%20kantian_ethics.htm
RIGHT: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-social-political/
INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY BY DANIEL J. SULLIVAN (COPYRIGHT
2013 BY TAN BOOKS NORTH CAROLINA)
5. HIS LIFE AND WORKS
Born on April 22, 1724 in Konigsberg, East Prussia
Attended school in Collegium Fridiricianum, a school that taught
classicism and the university of Konigsberg where he took philosophy,
mathematics and physics.
His father is Johann Georg Cant while his mother is Anna Regina Cant
His father died in 1746, forcing him to stop his studies to help his family,
but he returned to the university of Konigsberg in 1755
“THE CENTRAL FIGURE OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY”
6. HIS LIFE AND WORKS
Became a part of the university of Konigsberg’s faculty in 1770, teaching
metaphysics and logic. But even before this, he was already a lecturer
and tutor at the said university.
1781 – THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON
He attempted to explain how reason and experiences
interact with thought and understanding.
CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE - stating that morality is derived
from rationality and all moral judgments are rationally supported. What is
right is right and what is wrong is wrong; there is no grey area.
7. HIS LIFE AND WORKS
OTHER WORKS:
THE CRITIQUE OF PRACTICAL REASON
CRITIQUE OF JUDGEMENT
Died in Konigsberg on February 12, 1804
9. Typically found alongside Kant’s discussions of
the postulate of God. He regards both as
necessary conditions for the realization of the
ideal Highest Good.
The premise of immortality was found in the
“incomplete harmony between morality and its
consequences in the world.”
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
10. Preface of the Critique of Practical Reason:
“The belief in immortality is based on a
notable characteristic of our nature, never to
be capable of being satisfied by what is
temporal”
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
11. Kant’s first argument for immortality basing
himself on the principle of purposiveness:
As nothing is purposeless each organ or
faculty into the world has its own specific
claim that human life as whole too, must have
its own end, although it is an end not in this
life but in a future life.
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
12. The highest good is a necessary object of the will
Holiness, or complete fitness of intentions to the moral law is
a necessary condition of the highest good.
Holiness cannot be found in a sensuous rational being. It can
be reached only in an endless progress and since holiness is
required, such endless progress toward it is the true object of
the will such progress can be endless only if the personality of
the rational being endures endlessly.
The highest good can be made real, therefore only on “the
supposition of the immortality of the soul.”
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
KANT GIVES THE MORAL ARGUMENTS FOR THE SOUL:
13. In the first critique (pure reason, 1781), the
purpose of the afterlife is to provide a domain
for ideal highest good’s distribution of
happiness.
In the second critique, (practical reason, 1788),
Kant revises the said postulate:
[IMMORTALITY] is necessary for our
becoming worthy of that happiness
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
14. Kant argued in the second critique that we need
immortality not to achieve happiness but rather
in order to make endless progress toward the
complete conformity of dispositions with the
moral law, that is, toward virtue or worthiness
to be happy.
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
15. THE POSTULATE OF
IMMORTALITY, AS WELL AS
OF GOD AND FREEDOM,
CANNOT BE KNOWN BUT
CAN ONLY BE THOUGHT.
ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
17. JUSTICE are the things one
has a moral obligation to
do.
ON JUSTICE
18. NEGATIVE MORALITY
He calls this “Justice” for Justice has a number of
roughly equivalent commandments for how one must
act. one must ALWAYS be just.
Kant calls this having a “perfect” or “strict” obligation
ON JUSTICE
19. Positive morality – this is what he calls,
“benevolence.” this is never a strict duty
like justice according to Kant. One is not
morally required to always be benevolent.
But one does have a moral duty to be
benevolent sometimes and as much as one
can.
ON JUSTICE
20. We have a strict or “perfect” duty to always act
justly
We do not have a duty to always act
beneficently
We do have an “imperfect” duty: to sometimes
act beneficently
ON JUSTICE
21. BENEFICENCE – Going above and beyond the call
of duty; well doing; the activity of benefiting
others
Going beyond mere justice to assist people with
their goals is to act beneficently.
ON JUSTICE
22. THE FIRST DUTY OF JUSTICE IS TO NEVER TREAT
PEOPLE AE MERE MEANS TO ONE’S OWN ENDS.
Treating persons as ends in themselves is
ACTING JUSTLY AND BENEFICIENTLY
ON JUSTICE
24. Right (Recht) = both law (gesetz) and justice
(gerechtigkeit)
Right implies systematicity and lawlikeness like
universality and necessity.
ON RIGHT
25. In the state of right, “each remains
free to seek happiness in whatever way
he thinks best, so long as he does not
violate the lawful freedom and rights
of his fellow subjects at large.
ON RIGHT
26. REPORT BY:
POST. SEAN BERNARD D. TAN
Augustinian Vicariate of the Orient
I – A.B. Philosophy | STVI Diliman
ON IMMORTALITY, JUSTICE AND RIGHT
Notes de l'éditeur
POSTULATE – requirements in which, a person must be entitled to regard as possible to satisfy, since otherwise it would be impossible to fulfill one’s moral duty.
TEMPORAL - relating to worldly as opposed to spiritual affairs; secular; of or relating to time.
PURPOSIVENESS - 1. relating to, having, or indicating conscious intention
2. serving a purpose; useful
SENSUOUS - relating to or affecting the senses rather than the intellect; attractive or gratifying physically, especially sexually
BENEVOLENCE – goodwill; the disposition to benefit others
Benevolence is not the same as altruism. Altruism dictates that you sacrifice yourself for the benefit for others -- that their need is a claim on your actions. Benevolence enables you to achieve your values from relationships with other people. Benevolence is very much like productiveness in its use as a tool for achieving value.
The virtue of benevolence: an extention of justice and the first step in promoting trade among people.
Huwag gamitin ang tao para maachieve mo ang ibang end.
End – telos – purpose/goal