Right Intention
Has a Decisive Value
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
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Editorial Note:
philosophy. His
1795 essay on “Perpetual Peace” is prophetic
and inspiring
regarding to the creation of the United Nations
Organization, U.N.O.,
which took place in 1945. One of the
major
philosophers of the Enlightenment, Kant (1724-1804) is
referred to
several times in “The Mahatma Letters to
A. P. Sinnett”.
(CCA)
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There is no
possibility of thinking of anything at all in the world, or even out of it,
which can be regarded as good without qualification, except a good will.
Intelligence, wit, judgment, and whatever talents of
the mind one might want to name are doubtless in many respects good and
desirable, as are such qualities of temperament as courage, resolution,
perseverance. But they can also become extremely bad and harmful if the will, which
is to make use of these gifts of nature and which in its special constitution
is called character, is not good.
The same holds with gifts of fortune; power, riches,
honor, even health, and that complete well-being and contentment with one’s
condition which is called happiness make for pride and often hereby even
arrogance, unless there is a good will to correct their influence on the mind
and herewith also to rectify the whole principle of action and make it
universally conformable to its end. The sight of a being who is not graced by
any touch of a pure and good will but who yet enjoys an uninterrupted
prosperity can never delight a rational and impartial spectator. Thus a good
will seems to constitute the indispensable condition of being even worthy of
happiness.
Some qualities are even conductive to this good will
itself and can facilitate its work. Nevertheless, they have no intrinsic
unconditional worth; but they always presuppose, rather, a good will, which
restricts the high esteem in which they are otherwise rightly held, and does
not permit them to be regarded as absolutely good. Moderation in emotions and
passions, self-control, and calm deliberation are not only good in many
respects but even seem to constitute part of the intrinsic worth of a person.
But they are far from being rightly called good without qualification (however
unconditionally they were commended by the ancients). For without the
principles of a good will, they can become extremely bad; the coolness of a
villain makes him not only much more dangerous but also immediately more
abominable in our eyes than he would have been regarded by us without it.
A good will is good not because of what it effects or
accomplishes, nor because of its fitness to attain some proposed end; it is
good only through its willing, i.e., it is good in itself. When it is
considered in itself, then it is to be esteemed very much higher than anything
which it might ever bring about merely in order to favor some inclination, or
even the sum total of all inclinations. Even if, by some especially unfortunate
fate or by the niggardly provision of stepmotherly nature, this will should be
wholly lacking in the power to accomplish its purpose; if with the greatest
effort it should yet achieve nothing, and only the good will should remain
(not, to be sure, as a mere wish but as the summoning of all the means in our
power), yet would it, like a jewel, still shine by its own light as something
which has its full value in itself. Its usefulness or fruitlessness can neither
augment nor diminish this value. Its usefulness would be, as it were, only the
setting to enable us to handle it in ordinary dealings or to attract to it the
attention of those who are not yet experts, but not to recommend it to real
experts or to determine its value.
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The above fragment
is reproduced from the February 2015 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist”. It was previously published as part of
the book “Grounding for the Metaphysics
of Morals”, by Immanuel Kant, first section, Hackett Publishing Company,
Inc., Indianapolis / Cambridge, 1993, 78 pp., see pp. 7-8.
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On the role of the esoteric movement in
the ethical awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire and Light of Theosophical
Literature”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
Published in
2013 by The Aquarian Theosophist,
the volume has 255 pages and can be obtained through Amazon Books.
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