PHIL250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Formal And Material Principles Of Theology

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Philosophy at St Joseph's College
• Course: PHIL250
• Professor: Charles Rodger

Document Summary

We ought to have a good will and act from duty (from reason). Duty is good will with certain subjective hindrances. So our will has certain subjective hindrances so we need to impose duty and laws upon ourselves. We could either determine our will by inclinations (desires) or reason because we are both rational and feel sensations. Duty is concept of good will mixed in with our inclinations; its based on reason. Holy will: if there is god then he wouldn"t be determined by inclinations but only through his reason. No way in which his will can have hindrances so god technically doesn"t have duty because he acts only from good will. Kant says the categorical imperative (obligations of all rational agents), acting from duty, is subjectively contingent but objectively necessary. Kant wishes to distinguish between acting from inclinations and acting from duty to get to where he wants to be in terms of morality.