Kants Moral Obligation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Kants Moral Obligation - Essay Example Timmons state in this regard, that the logic would play an important role in determining whether the perceived act will bring any good thing without ‘qualification’ (206). A good thing without qualification would only have two extremities including the good and the bad and nothing in between. Therefore, individuals use their reasoning capacity to identify the acts with good consequences. While individuals accomplish their desires out of good will, it is equally important to note that goodwill is the only virtue that has the aspect of universal absolute good (Timmons 207). This means that every good thing including wealth, honor, and riches may turn to be bad things in the end if individuals harbor ill wills for accomplishing their missions. However, people can perpetuate the good things if they have good intentions and wills making their deeds good in universal terms. In this sense, rationality comes into play in the sense that people who have good intentions motivated b y their positive reasoning will always accomplish good things in the society (Stern 45). While happiness may derive from a particular action does not accentuate the moral obligation of that action, as the idea of happiness is too empirical and indefinite to serve as a concept for moral obligation (Timmons 208). It is indefinite because people differ in tastes, preference, and enjoyments, while it is empirical in the sense that people actually understand that my experience, they can make decisions that bring them happiness. In a revisit of the concept of goodwill, people act because they strongly believe that they have a moral duty or they are morally obliged to perform certain tasks. The consequences in this case according to Stern, do not play an important role in deciding to engage in such deeds (Stern 62). Individual inclination principles, on the other hand, influence our actions in that reason recognizes our principles that in turn determine our motive in the quest of accomplishing our moral duty.