ABSTRACT
As Immanuel Kant puts it, "only a rational being has the capacity to act in accordance with the representation of laws, that is, in accordance with principles". In both the Critique of Practical Reason and Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, the meaning of life is the pursuit of the highest good. In the Critique of Practical Reason, Kant emphasizes that belief in God is "subjectively" and not "objectively" necessary: "Moreover, it is not to be understood by this that it is necessary to assume the existence of God as a ground of all obligation in general". Kant himself seems to say as much in a much-discussed remark, written shortly before his death. In seeking a Kantian answer to the question of the meaning of life, people have transcribed an arc from individual human actions, to all others' actions taken together, to belief in God.
