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1 results

  • 5 - The moral law as causal law

  • Edited by Jens Timmermann, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book:
    Kant's 'Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals'
    Published online:
    04 August 2010
    Print publication:
    24 December 2009, pp 82-101

  • Summary

    This chapter focuses on a preliminary step to connect the two claims, the step that connects rational agency to conformity to universally valid laws. It discusses the rationale behind thinking that conformity to universally valid laws is a requirement of rationality. Many readers assume that for Immanuel Kant, a rational agent must conform to universally valid laws because rational agency is rational. The chapter explains the role that conformity to universally valid causal laws plays in Kant's project of seeking out and justifying the supreme principle of morality. It also discusses some burdens this leaves for Kantians who favour the first formulation of the categorical imperative as a criterion or test of right action. The chapter concludes by claiming, admittedly without much argument, that while reason does not provide the universalization requirement in the categorical imperative, it does provide a spontaneity requirement.