On the other hand, if we neglect the concrete, empirical conditions and
consequences of the object of desire, there is no motive whatsoever that
may not be generalized. There is no _formal_ contradiction in acting
always on a motive of theft, unchastity, or insolence. All that Kant's
method can require, in strict logic, is that the individual always,
under similar circumstances, act from the same motive. Be willing to be
always dishonest, or impure, or proud in your intent; achieve
consistency in the badness of your motives, and you will be good!
Doubtless no one, not even the worst man, would be willing to be
universally consistent in his badness. But this is not in the least a
matter of a purely formal, logical inconsistency of the motive with
itself;[162] it is due rather to that _conflict among diverse desires,
and different objects for which one strives, which makes him aware that
at some time he should want to act kindly and fairly_.
=Organization of Desires from the Social Standpoint.=--What Kant is
really insisting upon at bottom is, then, the demand for such a revision
of desire as it casually and unreflectively presents itself as would
make the desire a consistent expression of the whole body of the
purposes of the self. What he demands is that a desire shall not be
accepted as an adequate motive till it has been organized into desire
for an end which will be compatible with the whole system of ends
involved in the capacities and tendencies of the agent. This is true
rationalization. And he further warns us that only when a particular
desire has in view a good which is social will it meet this requirement.
This brings us to our next problem. Just what is the process by which we
judge of the worth of particular proposals, plans, courses of actions,
desires? Granted that a generalized good, a socialized happiness, is the
point of view at which we must place ourselves to secure the reasonable
point of view, how does this point of view become an operative method?
§ 3. MORAL SENSE INTUITIONALISM
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