![]() ![]() ![]() One of the distinctive features of Kant’s ethics is that it focuses on duties, defined by right and wrong. ![]() He also thinks that intentions are important to the ethical evaluation of actions. Some of the main questions that Kant’s ethics focuses on are questions of right and wrong: What makes an action right or wrong? Which actions are we required by morality to perform? Do consequences matter? Is it ever permissible to do something morally wrong in order to achieve good consequences? Is it important to do actions with good intentions? And what are good intentions? Some of Kant’s answers to some of these questions are complex, but as we will see, he doesn’t think that consequences matter and thus good consequences cannot justify wrong actions. He published two large works on ethics, The Critique of Practical Reason and The Metaphysics of Morals, but it’s his first short work of ethics, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals that is his most important because it provides a succinct and relatively readable account of his ethics. But this didn’t slow him down, as through his 50s, 60s, and 70s, he published numerous large and influential works in many areas of philosophy, including ethics. ![]() Relative to most other philosophers, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was a late bloomer, publishing his first significant work, The Critique of Pure Reason, in 1781 at age 57. Joseph Kranak Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) by Johann Gottlieb Becker via Wikimedia Commons. ![]()
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