Conclusion: Virtue for Kant, means moral strength.
Premise 1: Virtue Is
A Duty And To Obey Duty Is To Be Virtuous
A. Imperfect duties are duties of virtue (pg 48
390)
B. The fulfillment of them is a merit. (pg 48 390)
C. The greatest moral perfection of man is to do
his duty (pg 51 393)
D.Virtue is the strength of a man’s maxim in
obeying his duty (pg 53 395)
E.The transgression of fulfilling duties is not an offense, but merely moral unworth (pg 48 390)
F. (i) To be morally unworthy is the inability to be virtuous
E.The transgression of fulfilling duties is not an offense, but merely moral unworth (pg 48 390)
F. (i) To be morally unworthy is the inability to be virtuous
Premise 2: Law Leaves
Obedience For Free Choice (pg 48 390)
A. Duties of virtue rest on free self-constraint alone, not
external (pg 40 383)
B.The categorical imperative “ought” announces this
constraint, and apples to men as rational natural beings (not to rational beings in general) (pg 36 379)
C. Rational natural beings are unholy enough to be
influenced by pleasure to transgress the moral law (pg 36 380)
D. Ethics contain duties which one cannot be (physically)
forced by others to observe (pg 38 381)
E.(i) Men (natural rational beings) can choose to act in
any way, and therefore must exercise self-constraint in their decisions to act
out of duty.
Premise 3: Inclinations
Are Obstacles
A.Vices (or inclinations) are the monsters which man has to
combat (pg 65 406)
B. Feelings play the master over man (pg 68 408)
C. Man must bring his inclinations under his authority (pg
67 408)
D. Man should not let himself be governed by feelings or
inclinations (pg 68 408)
E. Adversity, pain, and want are great temptations to
transgress ones duties (pg 46 387)
Premise 4: Fulfilling
Duties is the Ability to Overcome Said Obstacles
A.The impulses of nature contain resisting forces and hindrances
to duty’s fulfillment in the mind of man. (pg 37 381)
B.Man must judge himself capable of combating these
(hindrances) and conquering them by means of reason (37 381)
I thought your argument flowed logically and was clear. According to your argument, Kant believes that the virtue in a duty comes from the ability to chose the virtue over the vice in free choice. So, the virtuous men are those who can do this. However, I was confused in the first premise. In 1A you state, “Imperfect duties are duties of virtue” then, in 1C you write, “The greatest moral perfection of man is to do his duty.” I have to assume you mean that perfect duties (which are not virtuous) and moral perfection are unrelated.
ReplyDeleteLike Nicole, I really liked the overall structure of your argument outline here. When one reads the individual premises by themselves (without delving into the sub-premises) it is a pretty straightforward argument. However, I feel like some of your sub-premises could have been further explained, some seem a little simplistic. For example, when you say "Imperfect duties are duties of virture" in 1A, what do you mean by imperfect duties? Also, 2B was very confusing to me, the wording did not quite make sense. Which law of the categorical imperative are you referring to?
ReplyDeleteIn all, your argument outline is very strong but you might want to re-think premise 2 (which I think is the weakest one) and see if there is anything you could add to strengthen it.
Hi Maggie!- Like the comments before me suggest, I think you did a great job of making each individual premise clear and concise. I am slightly confused by 1A- "Imperfect duties are duties of virtue"- this could be explained further, maybe with one or two sub-sections. I also think this argument outline would benefit from a slight restructuring of the sub-premises and their sub-sections as well. I think this would allow your outline as a whole to flow in a way that makes it easier to understand and ties the premises together fully. I think you did a good job tying premise 3 and 4 together, but maybe premise 4 could be expanded slightly in order the round out the outline. Great job!
ReplyDeleteAs everyone above has stated, your outline is very thorough and you did a great job. The first question I want to ask is: does Kant view moral strength as a duty? If virtue means strength and virtue is a duty, are they interconnected? Secondly, I think it would strengthen your argument if you added an explanation of imperfect duties vs. perfect duties. You could simply add that imperfect duties imply the duty to act only by the maxims that we would desire to be universalized. For example, if you thought that the world would be a better place if everyone gave to charity, you have an imperfect duty to do so yourself. In this regard, imperfect duties depend on the subjective preferences of each being, making them morally binding. Perfect duties, Kant says, are the duties we have to make sure there are no contradictions when our actions are universalized. When you reference duties in your premise E (i), it could help to explain what you mean by "duty" more. Lastly, in regards to premise 3, does this mean that feelings are a bad thing? What about feelings of guilt and remorse leading to good repercussions? Overall, great job!
ReplyDelete