Hello everyone, I was wondering if perhaps someone could shed some light on the following quote. Im having some trouble wrapping my brain around it to interpret its meaning, so any help would be great. Gotta love Kant…
“There is no possibility of thinking of anything at all in the world, or even out of it, which can be regarded as good without qualification, except a good will”
Is this saying that unless something is out of good will it must always be questioned? A good will will always be victorious however anything but a good will could be regarded as selfish? Thanks in advance.
in my opinion, we all have a good will…
which differs from person to person…
someone might want something, and other person may want the opposite, but both have the best intentions…
so what I get form this is that ‘good’ is subjective and it depends on the perspective.
I understand why you find it tough - and I hope finding the first few sentences of morals tough doesn’t put you off the rest of it, for it is a good way into Kant.
Essentially he is saying that it is the intent - the will - behind an act that determines the nature of that act. We could build the largest homeless centre in the world and let people stay for free, but simply doing these things does not accrue us with any particular “having done goodness”.
He makes another comparison further on about the prescriptions a doctor needs to make a patient healthy and the items needed by a poisoner to kill his victim are of equal value, as both composite sets do their job perfectly well. He is saying that whatever actions we do, they have to be the result of good will if they are to gain us anything like respect, or for us to be called “good” or “brave” etc.
Your next mission, should you chose to accept it, will be to investigate the Categorical Imperative for what Kant means by “good will”.