Kant advocated the principle of “duty for duty’s sake.” A moral life is an autonomous life. Moral directives are directives issued by practical reason.
The aim of life is virtue, and not pleasure. According to Kant, good will is the only jewel which shines in its own light. Practical reason itself enforces moral laws upon itself Emotion has no place in a moral life. Kant holds that it is not moral to help another if one is pained by his sorrow and the help is consequent upon this feeling.
The value of actions depends upon their reason, not result. In acting there can be only one proper motivating cause and that is a faith in moral law. Sublime qualities like love, sympathy etc. should be adhered to only as a duty, not due to attachment. There is obligation in duty.
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Its directive is the ultimate directive. It does not depend upon the desire or aversion of the individual. Other orders do exhibit a cause-effect relation. Cause-effect relation has no bearing whatsoever on moral laws. They are not based on experience, and neither does experience validate them. Moral laws are universal. Duty is indispensable in any and very circumstance.
Criticism:
The following objections can be made against the unqualified nature of moral law and theory of duty for duty’s sake
1. Will cannot be objectless:
According to Jacobi “Kant’s is a will that wills nothing.” Volition cannot be without object. The moral laws of Kant are mere forms and one cannot ascertain, from them, his duty in a particular situation.
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2. Psychological dualism:
The theory of ‘duty of duty’s sake’ is based on a psychological dualism. Kant treats reason and sentience as mutually contradictory, forgetting that the two are inseparable parts of the soul. Sensibility is the content of a moral life. No activity is possible without it. Every activity has some motivating cause or the other.
3. Partial standard:
Kant’s theory became rigorous by completely excluding sentience from a moral life. He has directed a strong negation of sentience but such a life, lacking in feeling, would be one-sided.
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The highest aim is self advancement, but this would become impossible to some extent by an exclusion of feelings rigorism is as partial as Hedonism. Perfectionism is the final consummation of both.
4. Some exceptions are good:
Recognizing moral law to be completely unqualified Kant does not license any exceptions whatever but some things are good just because they are exceptions. Everyone cannot be a celibate.
If everyone did exercise celibacy, the very celibates would become extinct because procreation would come to an end. But though there are exceptions, no one denies die virtue of celibacy.
5. Stress on the inevitability of inner struggle:
It is Muirhead’s opinion that Kant says: “Virtue, in fact, lives in the life of its antagonist (i.e. desire).” In Kant’s opinion, the morality of an act increases, in direct proportion, with the intensity of this struggle.
This though, on the one hand, necessitates the putting of moral force on a criterion and on the other, makes struggle essential
6. Individualism:
In the words of James Seth, “Kill your sensibility (i.e. feeling), and you separate yourself from your fellows. Rationalism inevitably becomes Individualism. The basis of our sociability is not reason but feelings like love and sympathy.
7. Rigorism:
According to Jacobi, “The law is made for the sake of man and not man for the sake of law.” Man cannot obey laws with his eyes shut, thus it looks like rigorist to say that moral laws are unqualified. But this statement does possess importance in showing the inviolability of duty.