PHIL250 Lecture 15: Kant - Groundwork of Metaphysics of Morals
5 Jan 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Given the states of the past, the states of the present will be necessary. So if we can have experience that makes sense, then appearances must be set according to laws. Freedom would be a causality that violates temporal succession. Kant"s solution is that because we have drawn distinction between appearances and things in themselves, we can understand that in order to make sense of our practical experience, we need to take ourselves to be free. We are free because we give laws to ourselves but we fail to act according to them. Our will is a causality that we can"t have insight into because its causality of things in themselves. To be bound by duty, will can be determined by itself or other things; to have pure will (will that determines itself) is to be free.
