Assess Kant's ethics of duty and freedom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Assess Kant's ethics of duty and freedom - Essay Example According to Kant, ethics has to be considered from a human perspective. His writings on ethics are marked by an unswerving commitment to human freedom, to the dignity of man, and to the view that moral obligation derives neither from God, nor from human authorities and communities, nor from the preferences or desires of human agents, but from reason. (O’Neill, 1993, p. 175) Kant presented his ethical theory in his Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals (1785), Critique of Practical Reason (1787), The Metaphysics of Morals (1797), Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone (1793) and many essays on political, historical and religious topics. His ethics belonged to the critical philosophy developed in Kant’s masterpiece, The Critique of Pure Reason (1781). Kant constructed the principles of ethics according to rational procedures. He attempted to answer the question â€Å"What ought I to do?† Hence, he was concerned with the maxims, or fundamental principles which ought to guide our actions. A principle that cannot serve for all cannot be a moral principle, and this idea allows to assess ethically the maxims that agents adopt. Those who reject non-universalizable principles have morally worthy principles, and those who adopt non-universalizable principles have morally unworthy principles. The demand of the rejection of non-universalizable principles is called by Kant the Categorical Imperative, or the Moral Law. The Categorical Imperative is formulated in different versions. The strictest one is the Formula of Universal Law, which claims: â€Å"Act only on the maxim through which you can at the same time will that it be a universal law†. This is considered the keystone of Kant’s ethics (O’Neill, 1993). A maxim of false promising is not universalizable, hence cannot be included among the shared principles of any plurality of beings. The maxim of