Kantian Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Kantian Philosophy - Essay Example In my attempt to delineate what is universal and empirical in Kant’s philosophical though and inquiry, I shall explore the connection between happiness and goodness and provide a logical analysis on my part to clearly show how a certain thing can be empirical or universal. At the same time, I shall work on the idea of reason in influencing how happiness and goodness work in relation to the universal and the empirical. Principle of a good will is important because it determines the extent and the scope of what might be the effect and the accomplishments of it. Having such condition, it can be considered that goodness may be considered universal depending on the purpose behind it. Having that said, one can observe that a good intention may or may not result into something beneficial even if helping can be considered morally good in its own right. People will always work out the presumptions that surround goodwill. This is where things can be considered to be jumping out the univ ersal condition that Kant tries to achieve. However, one cannot disregard the fact that inclinations are subjective which can devalue the universal condition. I would like to draw a connection between Kant’s notions towards happiness which can be connected to how the universality of a certain will can be considered absurd. Desire is one of the key concepts that Kant has put into place as he provides reasoning on how happiness works. 4 Possibly, it is a natural phenomenon experienced by people since it is natural and universal to show desire. However, the very subjectivity of it limits it be observable in the case of an individual and cannot be considered to be highly applicable in most cases. Variations then emerge. How does reason gives a condition to attain both of the phenomena? Goodness and Happiness are both subjective but reason has a certain conditioning it imposes on it to allow to materialize universally and empirically. However, Kant points out that duty has a certa in influence on how happiness and goodness can be achieved. Reasoning provides the condition where duty cannot be considered universal or far from universal due to the inherent personal will that a person imposes on duty. 5 The subjectivity that has emerged from it became the influential condition as to how one may argue that goodness and happiness are done. Goodness is seen based on how a person does not want to abuse another person; however, there is still a personal bias that there is a way to look for happiness in the manner of achieving goodness. Analytically, it can be seen that happiness and goodness cannot be separated. The universality of it, presumably, can be seen on how people feel it and act on it. Its practical use is already universal in its own right. It just becomes empirical as the experiences of it vary accordingly to contexts. Extensively, it can be seen that goodness is inherent in humans because of reasoning that there is a need to keep things on order and by d oing so, happiness is achieved. This becomes a highly synthetic and a dual paradigm of action. One may act for both goodness and happiness with separating it. The very manner of acting the happiness and goodness is already universal in its own right since it people have a moral inclination to do such. Experiences are the ones that make the universality empirical since it is even safe to say that Kant’s philosophy is relatively individualistic in nature. In this case, will become one of the most important conditions since its imperativeness make it part of practical and universal thought. Will is