Kant’s Thoughts On Moral God

Kant’s philosophy of religion is based on his philosophy of morality,and in the philosophy of religion,Kant elaborated a concept that has been discussed by philosophers for a long time--God.Kant’s discussion of the concept of God is not accomplished overnight,but after criticizing the previous concept of God and making moral proof of God,he constructs a God with moral attributes.The first part of this paper starts with Kant’s criticism of the ontological proof method of God’s existence,the deistic proof method and the cosmological proof method constructed by the philosophers such as Anselm and Thomas Aquinas and deconstructs the traditional proof method of God’s existence,denies the ability of human’s speculative reason to know God,and cannot seek God in the field of knowledge.The second part of the article starts from the "freedom",discusses the practical reason and the self-discipline of will of man,and then leads to the third question of Kant’s philosophical system--what can I hope for? As a "limited practical rational being",real people inevitably pursue earthly happiness.In order to adjust the highest good between virtue and happiness and achieve the consistency of virtue and happiness,Kant put forward the concept of "the highest good",and the proposition of "God exists" is the necessary condition for existence as the practical postulate of supreme good,which makes the image of God possible in the moral field.The third part of the article begins with Kant’s elaboration of "natural teleology" and "moral teleology",expounds the proposition that "man is the ultimate purpose of the whole nature",completes the moral argument of the existence of God,and makes "religious God" become "moral God".The moral God set by Kant has such ethical attributes as the sanctity of legislation,the benevolence of ruling and the justice of trial,and the order of the three cannot be changed: sanctity comes before benevolence,and benevolence comes before justice.The fourth part of the article explains the rationality of the moral God set by Kant.Moral God is a set God rather than a real God,it is a God towards people and the set path is reasonable;The moral God is an ethical God rather than a religious god.Different from the image of God in traditional religion,Kant’s definition of God as a moral God and the way of moral argument are reasonable.The fifth part discusses the practical enlightenment of the moral God set by Kant.The sanctity of moral God lays a solid foundation for the construction of social morality,benevolence stimulates the motivation of personal moral cultivation,and justice creates a sense of moral respect for the society.Through the study of Kant’s thought of moral God,this paper responds to the predecessors’ misunderstanding of "moral God" from the perspective of ethics,deepens the ethical attribute of "moral God",and provides guidance for solving the problem of moral marginalization in today’s society.