What is Hegel's critique of Kant in Reason as Testing Laws Is Hegel Essay

What is Hegel's critique of Kant in Reason as Testing Laws Is Hegel fair to Kant - Essay Example For Kant the categorical imperative is important mainly because it "determines the will independently of the sensuous motives of which ordinary moral deliberation is suspect."2 Therefore for him there is a marked difference between acting honestly for ones own sake and acting honestly with the belief that truth is a "universal requirement" the latter of which relates to categorical imperative.3 For Kant duty requires more than the universal form of action and he brings out these ideas and notions of the categorical imperative which Kant claims are "merely so many formulations of precisely the same law."Also for him the categorical imperative contains an end which functions as the single limiting condition of moral action. 4 Thus in his book the Formula of the End, Kant says "Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end" Kant goes on to clarify further that if humans are to be treated as "ends in themselves" then each individual should be allowed to choose their own ends at the same time. Furthermore he claims that misleading someone (by lying to them) for a particular Design is the way of using that other person as means rather than an end. Therefore the assertion not to treat humanity as a means but an end, i.e. when they choose to help you themselves. Hegel's criticism of Kant Hegel has made some interesting criticisms of the emptiness that seems to surround the Categorical Imperative when he says that "The criterion of law which Reason possesses within itself, fits every case equally well, and is thus in fact no criterion at all."5 However in the... What is Hegel's critique of Kant in "Reason as Testing Laws† Is Hegel fair to Kant? For Hegel this idea is fruitless in many respects as he thinks that even immoral behaviour would qualify under the test given by Kant' and that there no formulation of a universal set of duties .Thus Hegel's criticism of Kant largely concerns Kant's so called formalism as has been discussed by Julian. Before discussing Hegel's critique of Kant it would be useful to explain the ideas of Kant who expresses interest in the relationship between reason and experience. For Kant knowledge begins with experience in a rather chronological sense. For Kant empirical knowledge should be a "compound of that which we receive through impressions and that which our faculty of cognition supplies from itself". And that reason should become the tool that isolates knowledge from everything empirical from it. Julian has pointed out that Hegel believes that Kant’s idea of a duty does not produce an â€Å"immanent list of duties;†. To be fair this is not one of Kant's objectives at all and it can be safely said that Hegel is missing the point of Kant’s claim, because devising such a list is not possible at all due to people’s differing notions of what morality or duties should be like.In this regard I would like to give the example of local conventions in certain areas. The notion of hospitality in Asian countries allows anyone to be welcome in another’s house and there is hardly any concept of â€Å"unauthorized entrance† as in the case of western countries.