Philosophy - Introduction to Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Philosophy - Introduction to Ethics - Essay Example Thus moral duty has intrinsic moral worth in itself. This is derived from a priori laws that govern the creation. Basing one’s life on the call of pure, practical reason leads a moral life. According to Kant ‘duty’ was the supreme moral notion in the world. It forms the basis of Kant’s substantive ethics. But no action based on duty leads to creation of a moral law. Duty succeeds moral law and doesn’t precede it. There are no ‘a posteriori’ conditions of the existence of moral laws. However, it has a moral worth that is unconditional and doesn’t depend upon circumstance and the person. On following the duty a person derives the highest moral worth that is based on Universal laws. The realization of one’s sense of duty is the greatest good and treasure trove of happiness. He held that a rational man always performed moral duty yielding the highest good and greatest happiness. Kantian reason says that these universal truths a re a priori, that they exist in nature even before a man realizes them. Kant argued that only universal laws can have the power moral worth to demand abiding sense of duty from the rational beings. A law made by an authority less than nature is fallible. Nature is a perennial source of goodness but was bound by its intrinsic and unalterable laws. The universal laws sustain goodwill and morality lies in spreading goodwill by conforming to the universal laws by an innate yet rational belief in duty. Man has been bestowed with reason to take morally uplifting decisions and actions that not only brought him in consonance with the rational acts of others but also that of nature. Kant suggested that man’s call for moral duty often comes in conflict with his own ‘small nature’; desires borne out of natural impulses. But Kant emphasizes that duty borne of reason yielded the greatest happiness and duty. Thus actions done based on moral duty