FREE ESSAY ON KANT: AN ACT OF MORAL WORTH

KANT: AN ACT OF MORAL WORTH

Jill had been driving down a deserted road when her tire became flat. With no one around
for miles she struggled with changing the tire when Jack happened to be driving by and
stopped to give her a hand. How and why is this an act of genuine moral worth?
When the opportunity arises to be helpful without recognition or to do a good deed when
one is presented without thinking about it, is to perform an act of duty with moral
worth. Jack's act was done for the "right" reasons to be considered a moral act. Kant
would classify Jack's act as a categorical imperative, meaning his act delivers a course
of action that must be followed because of its rightness and necessity. Before Jack
pulled over, he may have asked himself if he was willing to universalize the act of
helping another when they are in need. In this case, this act seems to be one that could
be a universal law, so it therefore must be moral. In terms of this particular scenario,
it would have been wrong for Jack not to help Jill when there was no one else around to
help. He had a sense of duty to help the woman. 
Jack avoided acting out of the hypothetical imperative because he had no ulterior motives
in helping Jill. There are a few different ways Jack could have acted in accordance with
duty, but not out of the sake of duty. If Jack had the motive of self-interest because he
finds joy in helping others, he would be acting out of the pleasure that it gives him to
do so. Jack only helped Jill because in the end he is happy because Jill is happy.
Meaning he only did the act to make himself happy. In this case, Jack's action would have
no true moral worth. Another example of something Jack could have done to act in
accordance with duty would have been to use helping Jill as a means to look like a better
person. If he only helped Jill to brag about what a helpful, wonderful man he was, then
this act would also have no moral worth. These are a few pitfalls Jack could have fallen
into if he were not acting according to moral law.
According to Kant's philosophy, all of our actions of any sort must have moral worth and
should be performed upon a sense of duty. It is a good thing Jack had the sense of duty
within him or else Jill could have been in for some big trouble!
Bibliography
Grounding for the metaphysics of morals, Kant