The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics — Kant — John Shaqi
The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics
Kant · en
Virtue considered in its complete perfection is, therefore, regarded
not as if man possessed virtue, but as if virtue possessed the man,
since in the former case it would appear as though he had still had
the choice (for which he would then require another virtue, in order
to select virtue from all other wares offered to him). To conceive a
plurality of virtues (as we unavoidably must) is nothing else but to
conceive various moral objects to which the (rational) will is led
by the single principle of virtue; and it is the same with the
opposite vices. The expression which personifies both is a contrivance
for affecting the sensibility, pointing, however, to a moral sense.
Hence it follows that an aesthetic of morals is not a part, but a
subjective exposition of the Metaphysic of Morals; in which the
emotions that accompany the force of the moral law make the that force
to be felt; for example: disgust, horror, etc., which gives a sensible
moral aversion in order to gain the precedence from the merely
sensible incitement.
{INTRODUCTION ^paragraph 180}
XV. Of the Principle on which Ethics is separated from
Jurisprudence
This separation on which the subdivision of moral philosophy in
general rests, is founded on this: that the notion of freedom, which
is common to both, makes it necessary to divide duties into those of
external and those of internal freedom; the latter of which alone
are ethical. Hence this internal freedom which is the condition of all
ethical duty must be discussed as a preliminary (discursus
praeliminaris), just as above the doctrine of conscience was discussed
as the condition of all duty.
{INTRODUCTION ^paragraph 185}
REMARKS
Of the Doctrine of Virtue on the Principle Of Internal Freedom.
Habit (habitus) is a facility of action and a subjective
perfection of the elective will. But not every such facility is a free
habit (habitus libertatis); for if it is custom (assuetudo), that
is, a uniformity of action which, by frequent repetition, has become a
necessity, then it is not a habit proceeding from freedom, and
therefore not a moral habit. Virtue therefore cannot be defined as a
habit of free law-abiding actions, unless indeed we add "determining
itself in its action by the idea of the law"; and then this habit is
not a property of the elective will, but of the rational will, which
is a faculty that in adopting a rule also declares it to be a
universal law, and it is only such a habit that can be reckoned as
virtue. Two things are required for internal freedom: to be master
of oneself in a given case (animus sui compos) and to have command
over oneself (imperium in semetipsum), that is to subdue his
emotions and to govern his passions. With these conditions, the
character (indoles) is noble (erecta); in the opposite case, it is
ignoble (indoles abjecta serva).