Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of MoralsRecommendations

The nature and theoretical underpinnings of ethics have long been a source of intellectual inspiration for great thinkers. Immanuel Kant, one of the most influential philosophers of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, investigates the fundamental nature of morality in the Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785). He rejects that positive or negative effects have any importance in the moral appraisal of human activity by rejecting the results or consequences of action as the foundation of moral judgements. We must instead rely on the Good Will to guide us. What exactly is this Will on which so much emphasis is placed, and how does it serve as the foundation for really moral behavior? Immanuel Kant offers an ethical stance that has been a major influence in the Western civilization in this important work.