An early Kant Powerpoint on Kant.

1. “ I perceive God in the starry heavens above or the moral law within.” “Two things fill the mind with ever new increasing admiration and awe… the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me” CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON 1791.

2. POSTULATE means makes most sense MAXIM roughly means laws

3. His argument for the existence of God follows: We all have a sense of innate moral awareness – from this we are under obligation to be virtuous An ‘average’ level of virtue is not enough, we are obliged to aim for the highest standard possible True virtue should be rewarded with happiness There is an ideal state where human virtue and happiness are united – this Kant called the ‘ Summum Bonum’ Moral statements are prescriptive – ‘ought’ implies ‘can’ Humans can achieve virtue in a lifetime but it is beyond us to ensure we are rewarded with happiness. Therefore there must be a God who has power to ensure that virtue and happiness coincide in an afterlife.

4. Moral qualities exist as separate entities. We are contingent and flawed beings and cannot achieve summum bonum (HIGHEST MORAL GOOD) Summum bonum must be achievable Morally necessary to postulate Gods existence. God is required for morality to reach its end.

10. SUPPORTERS OF MORAL LAW THEORY: Based largely on 4th Aquinas Way – There cannot be infinite regress of goodness. It must have a purely good source. H.P Owen – “It is impossible to think of a command without also thinking of a commander” Moral laws cannot explain themselves. Assume objective moral laws exist Cardinal Newman – “If the cause of these emotions doesn’t belong to the visible world the objects to which the perception is directed must be supernatural and divine” Conscience must have come from somewhere – Voice of God. C.S Lewis – “I think Kant argues that our sense or morality implies that the world is ordered in a moral way – and this in turn implies the existence of God.