Many people know Kant's moral philosophy, but the connotation and basic logic of Kant's moral philosophy are rarely explained clearly, and today I will try to help you understand it from another perspective. In Kant's moral view, there are three supreme principles, or absolute laws, and these three laws are.
First: When you act, always make your actions have the meaning of universal legislation at the same time
Second: When you act, always submit your will to the commander of reason
Third: Always treat human nature, whether your own humanity or the humanity of others, as an end in itself, not as a means.
These three absolute laws, which we might also call Kant's moral laws, can be summed up in two points: moral principles must be universal, and man is the end, not the means. In Kant's moral concept, man is the end is not the means, highly respected, let us see Kant's respect for people, we can never take others as a means to achieve their own ends, people should respect everyone equally, this is a very noble moral concept. But in fact, in Kant's concept of morality, the most important thing is that morality must have universality. Why does morality have to be universal? In fact, Kant is a morality based on reason.
We can draw truth based on reason, and truth is universal and inevitable, which is the basic feature of a truth. In the moral realm, a certain moral standard needs to be universal if it is to be true. If morality is based on selfishness, or on emotion, then morality is not universal.
Kant gave an example, if a murderer comes after an innocent person, and this innocent person runs into your house and hides, then this murderer comes to you and asks, did you see a man come in? At this point you should lie and tell him that you didn't see it? Or do you tell him truthfully that this man is in the house? In the eyes of many people, of course, you should lie. But Kant said that it is an absolute law not to lie that should be obeyed by anyone at all times, so you cannot lie. But you can tell him at the same time that if you go and hurt this innocent person, you will fight with you.
In this thought experiment, it can be seen that Kant's moral law is very strict, and this strictness comes from "universality" and applies to everyone, such as the article that you cannot lie, which may be beneficial to you, but if you are a person who is being lied, you certainly do not want others to lie to you. Therefore, if a morality is not as universal as a truth, and treats everyone equally, then this morality cannot be called morality. Just as in the realm of reason, if a truth, which does not apply to any one situation, has a counterexample, then it cannot be called truth. The same is true in the moral sphere, where any moral law must be universal and inevitable, treating everyone equally under all circumstances. So, in Kant's view, moral values are constructed on the basis of reason.
Morality must start from reason, let's take another example, in Mencius, Mencius gave an example that people have a good nature, especially compassion, such as when we see a child fall into a well, we will instinctively save the child. In Mencius's view, the act of the child is certainly not motivated by some selfish consideration, not for a good reputation, nor for some kind of reward, but only out of compassion. But according to Kant's moral view, this act of compassion still has no moral value. You may be wondering, why does compassion not have moral value? Kant may say that this compassion-based morality is unreliable and not universal if it is merely out of compassion to save children.
For example, imagine that this child is the child of your enemy's family, and their family has a deep hatred for you, so will you still go to save him? Probably not necessarily, and therefore emotion-based morality is impossible and cannot guarantee universality. Not always, Kant's morality is constructed on the basis of reason, that is, it should be observed in all circumstances, just as truth is universal and inevitable.
So, in Kant's view, morality and reason are actually the same, and in Hume's view, moral judgment is a value judgment, constructed based on emotion rather than reason.
But Kant believed that if morality is to become a universal law, then it needs to be universal and inevitable, to be universal and inevitable, then it must be built on the basis of reason, and moral values must have a rational basis. Not only that, but morality and reason are consistent, and freedom and reason are also consistent. We'll talk about that in the next issue.
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