What is good in itself, for Kant?
The only thing that is good in itself is a good will. Will = faculty in one’s mind for choosing a course of action. 2. How does a good will choose? A good will chooses an act for good reason(s). 3. The good will, motives, and intentions. Having a good will is roughly equivalent to having good intentions. Your behavior and other externalities are worthless without a good will. 4. Reason v. emotion, pleasure, or inclination. We should, according to Kant, value and base our actions on reason, not emotion, pleasure, or inclination. 5. Getting pleasure from doing an action before, during or after that is fine, but pleasure cannot be the main part of your motivation for doing the action. Paradigmatic Kantian situation: You get no pleasure, you have no desire to help others, but you help others anyway from a sense of duty. You’ve acted morally, according to Kant! 6. Consequences, schmonsequences! Kant thinks consequences are irrelevant to determining what is moral or not (“A good will is not
