Moral Self-Knowledge in Kantian Ethics Essay Example for Free

Moral Self-Knowledge in Kantian Ethics EssayIn the article titled, Moral Self-knowledge in Kantian Ethics, Emer OHagan discusses Kants views and ideas concerning self-knowledge and the role it plays in duty and virtuous action at law. OHagan first introduces a key feature of Kants ethical theory which is its recognition of the psycho arranged complexity of human creations. OHagan uses this recognition of psychological complexity by Kant to dive into Kants feeling on self-knowledge.Once a basic generaliseing of Kants attitude towards self-knowledge has been established, OHagan then uses Kants ethical theory to show how self-knowledge can be apply as a means to help determine the commodity of an action. The arguments presented by OHagan are logical and clearly supported and verified through the presented evidence. Kant is sh have to have recognized the psychological complexity of the human being in recognizing that, judgments concerning the rightness of actions are vulnerabl e to corruption from self-interested inclination (OHagan 525-537).Kant is saying that that even though an action may start out as from duty, our internal feelings as human beings can create a beneficial end as a means for the action, thus rendering it non from duty. Kant in any case recognizes that our own judgments about us may not be accurate. Moral self-development is a practice to develop verity for our self-judgments and takes into consideration whizzs motives for action. OHagan tells us that this moral practice requires moral self-knowledge which is a general anatomy of self-awareness disciplined by respect for autonomy, the theoretical foundation of Kantian ethics.According to Kant, the first command of the duties to oneself as a moral being is self-knowledge. This is the ability to know yourself in terms of whether your heart is for good or evil and whether your actions are pure or impure. Kant describes duties of virtue to be wide duties, in that there is not a clear s tandard for how one should go about performing action for an end that is also a duty. OHagan tells us that Kants duty of moral self-knowledge is the duty to know ones own heart.Kant tells us that moral self-knowledge is quite difficult because it involves abstracting, or taking a non-biased analysis of ones self. Because we are bound to our own feelings and inclinations, we cannot completely separate ourselves from our own bias. The power of self-knowledge is the power to bring down things in objectivity instead of subjectivity. The final step of the argument is relating self-knowledge to determining the goodness of an action. OHagan tells us that developing self-knowledge will develop ones self-understanding and will develop guards against self-deception.Using these skills to truly understand ones heart allows for one to know ones motives, and thus practical office in action. According to Kant, the goodness of an action is determined by ones motives, so the goodness of ones actio n can now be evaluated. OHagan clearly demonstrates the importance of self-knowledge in Kants theory of ethics and validates its importance by describing application for use of the practice of self-knowledge (OHagan 525-537).