Immanuel Kant carried out a kind of revolution in philosophy, thanks to which he became known first in the scientific circles of his time, and later among all civilized humanity. He always had his own, special outlook on life, this scientist never deviated from his principles. His work has been mixed and is still the subject of study.
They said about him that he was an introverted person, because Kant had never left his hometown of Koenigsberg in his entire life. He was purposeful, hardworking, and fulfilled all that was planned in his life, which few people can boast of. Kant's ethics is the pinnacle of his work. The philosopher perceived it as a special part of philosophy.
Kant's ethical teaching is a huge work and research in the study of ethics as a necessary science and culture that regulates relations between people. It is the norms of morality, according to the philosopher, that determine the behavior of a person and dictate what to do in any particular situation. Kant tried to justify these rules of social behavior. He believed that one should not rely on religious views and dogmas. Immanuel Kant was also firmly convinced that one cannot consider moral that is not connected with the performance of a duty. The scientist distinguished the following types of it:
- a duty to your personality is to live your life purposefully and with dignity, to take care of it selflessly;
- duty to other people, which consists in good deeds and actions.
Under the concept of duty, a scientist understands the development of the individual’s inner world and his self-knowledge, and this requires a correct judgment about himself. Kant's ethics also pays great attention to the inner moral feelings of people. He noticed that without them people are not much different from animals. Conscience, in the opinion of the philosopher, acts as the mind, it is with its help that a person justifies or does not justify his and other people's actions.
Kant devoted a huge part of his life to the study of such a thing as ethics. The definition of this term, in his opinion, a priori and autonomously, is aimed not at the existing, but at the proper. An important concept in the development of the teachings of I. Kant is the idea of human dignity. The philosopher was convinced that ethics was an important part of philosophy, in which man as a phenomenon is the main subject of study. An essential dimension of human being is morality.
Kant's ethical teaching developed the specificity of morality. This implies that the kingdom of freedom is different from the kingdom of nature. He was preceded by the philosophy of naturalism, against which the philosopher spoke. He was a supporter of stoicism, which preached a negative attitude towards the physical world and to strength of mind, to will. The philosopher denied the desire to become a man, ignoring the surrounding circumstances and morality of society.
According to Kant’s teachings, ethics is the definition of the moral qualities of a person who should responsibly fulfill his duty to himself and society. Preserving his dignity, the reward of the individual for this will be the recognition of personal goodwill. Kant's ethics included thoughts about free will, about the immortal soul, about the existence of God. Theoretically pure reason could not resolve these ideas, according to the scientist’s theory.
The main postulate in Kant's philosophy was that of free will. It lies in the fact that free will is a condition for the existence of morality and this is an indisputable fact. The ethical doctrine of Immanuel Kant contained a great discovery. The philosopher proved that if a person has morality, then he himself is a legislator, his actions will be moral and he will have the right to speak on behalf of humanity. What is Kant's ethics? This is a highly moral theory about the problems of freedom, where a huge role is given to the human person.
