Kant

To act out of duty is a noble quality and those who do are commended and rewarded even if they are inclined to do something else. This was a belief that was propagated by the 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant. Kant was an intellectual his entire life and as a result believed in reason unconditionally. He substituted god with reason in his own mind. He believed that mankind was “immature” and wanted them think for themselves. Kant was a mathematician and thus like Plato believed in the absolutes of mathematics. Absolutes would be made from reason. Reason would produce a moral system or good will that was similar to Plato’s.   Good will according to Kant was the only thing that “can possible be conceived which could be called good without qualification”(141). He claimed that the good will was good because it was good of itself. It is higher than any emotional inclination one has towards a situation. Despite Kant’s belief in reason, he thought, “Reason is not, however competent to guide the good will safely”(143). He believed that only way to take care of one’s good will is through duty. Kant says we must take care of the good will, as it is the most important part of man. He uses a serious of maxims and conditions that duty must obey in order to fulfill such good will
Kant believed that good will and as a result moral credit could be achieved via duty. He laid out the proposition that “to have moral worth, an action must be done from duty”(143). If one acts from an inclination, and the result would be the same, they would not receive any moral credit.   Kant’s mathematic background is evident here as he makes sure that only one must only act from duty and get the result and not from any form of inclination. He does note that it sis difficult to separate whether one performs a certain action from duty or inclination as “it is far more difficult to note this difference when the action is in accordance with duty and in addition the subject has a direct inclination...