The Logic Of Kant's Moral Philosophy

Kant is committed to establishing a pure philosophy of morals—the metaphysics of morals.This kind of moral philosophy is not based upon the empirical method generally used in ethical studies,but rather to seek a priori for the supreme moral principles.In Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals,he attempts to lay a metaphysical foundation for daily morality.In this process,Kant does not follow the top-down deductive routine as he does later in Critique of Practical Reason,but on the basis of everyday moral experiences goes gradually from the bottom up to the top.By means of this bottom-top method Kant shows us how to start with moral phenomena and to end ultimately with the grasp of the freedom behind them.This helps us to understand the logical structure of Kantian moral philosophy,as well as the formation process of Kantian moral principles.Starting from common rational knowledge of morals,this article goes up to probing into the good-in-itself will.In order to explain the idea of absolute good will,we borrow the concept of duty from our life.And using this concept as a principle,Kant firstly exclude these acts in violation of duty;secondly,he make the distinction between “the act in accordance with duty” and “the act carried out from duty”.At this point does Kant declare that only “the act carried out from duty” has moral value,and finally make it a universal moral law.In order to make this law more clear and strict,we must ascend to metaphysics of morals and go on discussing it in this field.This metaphysics of morals gets rid of experiences and desires,and makes a priori inquiries into moral laws.From this perspective the moral law is manifested in the form of an imperative,and regarded as a synthetic judgment a priori.Imperative is divided into categorical and hypothetical,and the moral law can only classified as a categorical imperative.But how is the law as a categorical imperative possible? In order to solve this problem,we have to investigate a prior the possibility of categorical imperative,and for this purpose Kant makes a demarcation between “a world of sense” and “a world of understanding”.If we see ourselves as rational beings in a world of understanding,we must demand ourselves with moral laws.In this waythe law as a categorical imperative is demonstrated.All these conclusions are premised on the presupposing freedom.But we have no way to answer the questions about “how freedom is possible” and “how pure reason can be practical”,because the idea of freedom is the limit of all practical philosophy.