ABSTRACT
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was a German contemporary of the British philosopher Jeremy Bentham, yet in many ways Kant’s ethical writings were a rejection of the utilitarian turn in philosophy. Kant objected, in particular, to what he considered two central mistakes made by the early utilitarians. First, he rejects any subjective theory of the good as sufficient for the grounding of morality. Indeed, he rejects all theories of the good as the grounding of morality, whether subjective or objective. Rather than locating the foundation of morality in what happens to give us pleasure or make us happy, as the utilitarians did, Kant insists that reason is the basis of morality. Second, because he rejects the adequacy of any theory of the good as a foundation of morality, he rejects consequentialism. The consequences of any act will be variable and changing, depending on circumstances, but morality must be universal and the same in all circumstances. Kant will argue that some actions are wrong per se, universally and necessarily. Kant’s goal is to discover the basis of a universal moral law.
