Dr Tom Kerns
North Seattle Community College

 

Study Questions
for
Immanuel Kant's
Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals

(A small numeral appears at the end of each paragraph in the text to indicate which paragraph it is)

  1. Explain in your own words what you understand Kant to be saying in paragraph #1 about a Good Will.
  2. Explain in your own words what you understand Kant to be saying in paragraph #9 about the concept of acting “from the motive of duty” rather than from some other motive
  3. Paragraphs 10-12 are Kant’s illustrations of what he tried to say in paragraph 9.
    a. Explain in your own words what Kant is saying with his illustration in paragraph 10.
    b. Explain in your own words what Kant is saying with his illustration in paragraph 11.
    c. Explain in your own words what Kant is saying with his illustration in paragraph 12.
  4. In paragraph 14 Kant says that what makes an action good is not whether the action’s purposes are attained or not, but its goodness lies instead in “the principle of volition by which the action has taken place.” What do you think he means by that?
  5. In paragraph 15 Kant says that “Duty is the necessity of acting from respect for the law.” What do you understand him to mean by that?
  6. Kant’s main conclusion is expressed in the first half of paragraph 18. What do you understand him to be saying there?