Lesson 2.6: A Fact of Reason

Kant thought he had cracked the code of morality: a test that reveals whether what you do is morally permissible.

Topics Discussed

* Review of Kant's metaphysics, freedom, and the relationship between morality and rational agency

* Deontology versus consequentialism

* Hypothetical and categorical imperatives

* Kant's Universal Law Formulation and how to test a maxim through universalization

* Perfect and imperfect duties, including duties to oneself and duties to others

* Kant's Humanity Formulation and the requirement to treat rational persons as ends rather than merely as means

* Whether the Universal Law and Humanity formulations always generate the same moral conclusions

* Kant's broader philosophical system, including the highest good and the practical postulates of freedom, God, and immortality

* Kant's place within the Enlightenment and some criticisms of his views