Immanuel Kant

Marla Dallal

October 15, 2011

Topic B: Dreading the Outcome

In this paper I will argue that Immanuel Kant’s position that an action must only be in accordance with duty in order to have any moral worth, even in situations where one’s life is in danger, illustrates that Magda Trocme’s willingness to allow the Jewish refugee woman to enter her house, even though she was risking her life as well as the lives of the people of Le Chambon and her family, is considered a moral action since it is compatible with an action done from duty. Further I will provide my own argument concerning whether exceptional rules ought to be permitted in threatening situations.

In Immanuel Kant’s, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, he explains his position regarding a good will through the concept of duty. According to Kant, duty is “acting in accordance with the maxims of a member legislating universal laws for a merely possible kingdom of ends…” (K 439). In other words, an individual who performs her duty absent of incentives and inclinations and only because it is her duty expresses the idea of a good will. Kant states,

Now an action done from duty must altogether exclude the influence of inclination and therewith every object of the will. Hence, there is nothing left which can determine the will except objectively the law and subjectively pure respect for this practical law, i.e., the will can be subjectively determined by the maxim that I should follow such a law even if all my inclinations are thereby thwarted (K 401).

Actions done from duty should not concern or achieve some effect such as a reward. Rather, one’s actions should conform one’s will to a principle of duty or law that commands respect. In doing so, one is acting according to Kant’s moral philosophy. Kant illuminates the vitality of duty as a principle that requires one to act so that one’s maxim could be principles of the will. “Therefore, the pre-eminent good which is called moral can consist in...