On The Theory Of Kant’s Supreme Good

Kant’s theory of supreme good is the important part of his theory. For a long time,though Kant’s moral philosophy is a famous doctrine, the theory of freedom attractsmore attention and theory of supreme good is neglected, due to the fact that it isgenerally believed that theory of supreme good is the backward part of Kant’s theory.In fact, Kant’s theory of supreme good,teleology and freedom theory are linkedtogether. It can almost say that Kant’s theory of supreme good can better represent thecommanding height of Kant’s philosophy, the development of German classicalphilosophy inherits Kant’s theory of supreme good to a large extent. This dissertation,on the basis of comparing Kant’s theory of supreme good with traditional theory ofgood, especially with traditional theory of supreme good, tries to research into theprocedure and basic content of Kant’s theory of supreme good, and the dissertationconsists of four chapters.The first chapter focuses on the history of good in traditional philosophy beforeKant, especially the history of supreme good. Supreme good in traditional philosophyhas double meaning for Kant, it is the object which Kant inherits, and at the same timeit is also the object which Kant criticizes, it is crucial for understand Kant’s theory ofsupreme good. Therefore, it is necessary for us to investigate into the main theoreticalperspectives in traditional theory of supreme good. The investigation here tries tohighlight two aspects on the basis of introducing main representatives and their theory.One is the different regulations about supreme good absorbed by Kant; another is thatKant recognizes supreme good as external entity, and as the criticism of supreme goodtheory which takes supreme good as the deciding factor of will. On the basis ofinternal structure Kant wants to criticize, that is criticism of supreme good (soul, thewhole world and God) in the first critical theory which is the knowledge regulation.The second criticism is criticism of supreme good which takes supreme good as thedeciding factor of will, and ensure supreme good as the highest object of purepractical reason, that is the unity of virtue and happiness, and attributing the unity toGod. This chapter is divided into four parts: the first is the tradition of philosophywhich defines and understands supreme good in the knowledge level, mainly involving Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The second is the content of supreme goodwhich consists of virtue and happiness embodied in the philosophy before Kant,mainly involving Epicurus and the school of Stoics. The third is god which is supremegood itself, that is Augustine and Thomas Aquinas in middle ages. The fourth is ofKant’s orientation in supreme good in such context.The second chapter mainly introduces the basic thinking of Kant’s theory ofsupreme good on the basis of integrating related text of the three critical books.Compared with the traditional theory of supreme good, Kant absorbs some contents oftraditional theory of supreme good, arranging these contents in logic on the basis offree will, consequently forming the explanatory logic of from freedom to supremegood. Generally in the evaluation of Kant, people pay more attention to what Kantinherits from content, and thereby regard supreme good of Kant as a retrogress totheology metaphysics. In fact, though Kant inherits the content regulation aboutsupreme good in traditional metaphysics including theology metaphysics, he hasarranged it in logics on the basis of freedom, thus giving supreme good new meaninghere. The logic of Kant’s thinking can come down to two courses, the first course istaking supreme good back to freedom, on the basis of criticizing traditionalmetaphysics and all the theories taking supreme good as entity and object,conforming freedom as the basis of supreme good. Another course is deduce supremegood from freedom, leading to transformation of the position of supreme good in thewhole system. This transformation runs through Kant’s humanist position. In theanalysis on these courses, we also need to introduce Kant’s criticism of empiricalgood, and the difference between Kant’s supreme good and traditional supreme goodin the aspect of connotation object referent.The third chapter is to clear up Kant’s supreme good through combing Critiqueof Practical Reason, Religion in Pure Rational Limits, Historical Rational CriticismCorpus and so on. Kant’s supreme good contains three levels: the good of individuals,the good of God, the good of common. There are two goals of supreme good whichindividuals pursue, the highest good and perfect good. Kant realizes that thecombination between virtue and happiness is hard to completed in people restricted bysensibility, thus he puts forward more significant supreme good, that is original good,divine good, established by soul and God, and people realized the unity of virtue andhappiness in God. Therefore, next we will discuss God, as divine good as supremegood self. But Kant has not deterred, though he introduces supreme good into religion, the religion has exceeded theological significance. It is the unity of individuals underGod’s legislation, which is also supreme good in deeper level. Finally we will discussthe implement of supreme good, that is a kind of good of common or good of socialconsortium, embodiment of ideal in reality.The fourth chapter introduces contradictions in Kant’s theory of supreme goodand its influence on the speculative philosophy. Contradictions in Kant’s theory ofsupreme good include that between man and God, that between humanology andtheology, and conflict between intellectual-type of thinking and teleological thinking.Hegel, absorbing Kant’s supreme good and idea of purposiveness, through dissolvingintellectuality, went up to speculative method, forming system of speculativephilosophy describing development of absolute idea.