Overview of Immanuel Kants Grounding for the metaphysics of morals Essay

Overview of Immanuel Kants Grounding for the metaphysics of morals - Essay Example Kant uses Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals to help people obtain a better grasp at what moral principles really are. Kant provides a description of some of the general principles surrounding moral duties. He states that actions can only be considered moral if they are undergone for the sole purpose of being moral and without an underlying purpose. The next principle is that the quality of an action is judged for its morality based on the motive that produced the action, as opposed to the consequence of the action. The final principle declares that actions are only considered to be moral if they are undergone purely out of respect for the law of morality. These three principles reveal that to be considered an act of morality, everything must be done for the purpose of being moral. As there are many situations and circumstances to be taken into consideration, but cannot be due to their quantity, Kant points out that there must be a universal formula that can be applied to every situation to determine if what was undergone was done purely out of morality. This formula is as follows: â€Å"we must be able to will that a maxim of our action should be a universal law.† While this law may be considered intuition to most people, Kant still found it important to remind people of its existence and its purpose.