ledhead

has anybody read this?

Ground works for the metaphysics of morals
by Immanuel Kant

I have to read it and write a 1100-1200 word paper about it by next thurs. april 7th. the thing is, is that i have barely started it and it puts me to sleep. could anybody help me out and kind of summarize each of the sections for me. any help would be appreciated.

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"If you can count the number of cylinders on one hand....it is NOT a race car." big bubba

"Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way"

asaris

What, you want us to do your homework for you? If you have specific questions, I'll help, but if it's your homework, you've got to read the thing yourself.

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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

ledhead

i am going to read it and know i do not want you to do the homework for me, but a little help would be appreciated in understanding it. this stuff does not make any sense to me. maybe there is a site that kind of summarizes these old books.

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"If you can count the number of cylinders on one hand....it is NOT a race car." big bubba

"Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way"

Mbwuto

I'm sure lots of us in here can explain moral imperatives and people as means and ends, but really you need to grasp it yourself. What does the book cover? I've only encountered Kant in an ethics class.

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- people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent.

George Orwell

asaris

It's Kant's basic ethics text; he develops the categorical imperative in it -- "Act only such that your action expresses a universalizable maxim" or "Treat people always as ends, never as means". He takes it that this is merely an expression of what people mean by ethics. His main theoretical goal is to show that belief in God is necessary for ethics.

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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Mbwuto

I'm looking at my ethics reader(Louis Pojman's The Moral life) and Foundation for the metaphysics of morals is what the excerpt is taken from.

For the originating poster, if you can find Louis Pojman's introduction to Kantian ethics you might find everything a bit clearer.

"Ethics is not contingent absolute, and its duties op imperatives are not hypothetical but categorical(non conditional)...This is Kant's first formulation of his categorical imperative. "Act only on that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it would become a universal law."

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- people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent.

George Orwell

MoJoPokeyBlue

I'll write your paper for you for $1,000. IM me and I'll let you know how to wire the funds into my account.

MoJo

Mbwuto

Remember. Only pay him if you would be alright with everyone else in the world cheating on their homework too.

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- people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent.

George Orwell

MoJoPokeyBlue

But...as Kant might ask...is it really cheating, if our concept of reality hasn't even been defined yet?

MoJo

ledhead

thanks for the offer. but no thanks. my life would litterally be ruined if i got caught cheating.

thanks to the rest of you for your help.

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"If you can count the number of cylinders on one hand....it is NOT a race car." big bubba

"Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way"

mcat1981

You can get a very rough outline from Spark Notes. It isn't anything near complete, but it may help you get started.

It's a short read; I'm better for having given it a go. Give it a shot.

shrubbery

What?! Are you sure you're not confusing Kant with Descartes? I've got it black on white here in my philosophy text book that Kant believed that religion was no guarantist for moral. He had a secularized view on religion, and said that religion could be purposeful only as an guiding help. He also says that bibical stories shouldn't be read as facts, but one should analyze the moral in the biblical stories.

To understand Kants ethics, you have to understand his epistemology. Synthetic a priori, categorical imperativ then the

asaris

That's the standard view on Kant, shrubbery. My view is that Kant is closer to traditional Christianity than is generally thought. The traditional view tends to rely too heavily on the aged manservant theory; that Kant said certain things in order to keep his aged manservant happy. But, on the other hand, I still haven't read "Religion within the bounds of reason alone", so I don't know to what extent that'll force me to change my theory. In any case, while Kant is explicit about wanting the Second Critique to prove "God Immortality and Freedom", he doesn't mention religion at all. So we both could agree to that extent.

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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

shrubbery

Well, then I would hardly tell anyone that it was his main goal. If it was, he would've written alot more about it, wouldn't he? I would recommend ledhead to stick to the traditional view, as his works has been studied and analyzed for a few centuries ...

Good luck on the paper, ledhead.

asaris

His main goal in the Groundwork IS to prove God, freedom, and morality. He says this explicitly. That's different from saying it's his main goal overall. It's pretty clear his main goal overall is to determine the limits of metaphysical, ethical, and aesthetic knowledge.

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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

EULA

I find typing out summaries of every paragraph helps keep the mind awake and helps ENORMOUSLY when writing papers. You should see my writeup of Communist Manifesto. It wasn't about communism at all!