Introduction

'It is impossible to think of anything at all in the world, or indeed even beyond it, that could be considered good without limitation except a good will.' This slim book is the introduction to Kant's ethics and one of the most influential works of Western moral philosophy. The moral worth of an action, Kant argues, lies not in its consequences but in its being done from duty: a shopkeeper who never cheats a child is not moral if he does so only to keep his trade. The supreme principle of morality is the categorical imperative: 'Act only according to that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.' Another formulation runs: 'So act that you use humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always at the same time as an end, never merely as a means.' Human beings have dignity because they can give the moral law to themselves: this is autonomy.