Between Augustine and Nietzsche, who is closest to Kant’s moral philosophy? Which of these previous three thinkers are the most just along the lines of Plato’s philosophy?
Immanuel Kant became one of the most profound philosophers known for his groundwork of moral philosophy. The philosophers applied the principle of metaphysics of morals that hold on the idea that molarity is based on the standards of rationality. Kant mentioned that morality depended on the Categorical Imperative (CI) an unconditional and rational principle that human persons we must always follow in all times and cultures despite any natural desires. So it means any behavior or action that violates CI is immoral and irrational. According to Kant morality is not an illusion but rather a pure reasoning that depends on two concepts “goodwill” and “duty.” The philosopher mentioned that the idea of goodwill relates to the character of a “good person.” The term “will” is closer to the commonsense that human persons possess to make decisions on the basis of the moral demand or laws we have. On the other side, humans persons are motivated by duties to respect more laws he pointed out that the responsibilities are incentives on our own choices. According to Kant, an action has moral worth only if it expresses goodwill.
I think Saint Augustine was the closest Kant’s moral philosophy compared to Friedrich Nietzsche, who criticized most of the ideas of Kant about morality. Just like Kant, Augustine tried to connect morality with humans actions. The philosopher was more optimistic about the ability of humans to behave morally if they are closer to God’s law. Similar to Kant’s idea that humans have a duty to respect moral laws. The two philosophers believed that humans could not be moral without the demands of physical and rational laws. To them moral behavior can never be achieved if human sins or breaks the law. Both uses the concept of the moral law to defend the beliefs in God and free will as rational beliefs. On the other hand, Nietzsche saw Kant’s metaphysics and epistemology theories about morality more complicated. Unlike Kant, Nietzsche developed his moral philosophy with a natural framework and thus believed that there is not God nor any immortal soul. To him the world does not exhibit rational order. Remember we saw both Augustine and Kant defended rational beliefs. Among the three thinkers, Kant falls along the lines of Plato’s philosophy. Plato had a similar thought like Kant that there is a great connection between moral virtue with complete happiness. In his argument about moral philosophy, Kant used used related aspects, immortality, reason and rationalism, used by Plato to discuss ethics the three thinkers used one or more ideas from Plato’s philosophy but Kant was the most who fell along the lines of Plato’s philosophy.
What is the relationship between Plato’s ethical and political philosophies?
I learned that Plato’s ethics could be best described as Virtue Ethics, philosophical ideas that argue that human well-being or happiness is the major aim of moral thought and conduct. According to the great thinker, humans are moral agents and thus, we can describe human morals through behavioral conduct rather than by rules or consequences. The big question is why human are considered moral agents? Plato mentions that humans soul has three main parts; spirit, reason and appetite. He argued that part of the reason helps us in thinking and judging. The spirit controls our emotional ability while appetite acts as human desires. Plato defined these the part of souls to explain how humans make good ethical choices by balancing them. Being morals also depends on these parts and thus should be kept healthy and sane.
One interesting thing I learned about Plato’s political philosophy is that the great thinker was against democracy and considered as a “mob rule.” History reveals that the Democratic government of Athens executed Socrates and maybe this is what forced Plato to start disliking it. According to Plato, if the ideal government depends on the majority of these who voted for it, then those who did not approve the government should be a move to another city-state. The philosopher proposes an aristocracy government where the wise like philosopher could rule. According to Plato, a perfect society is communitarian where every individual contributes to building the society and this is the best way to maintain social order. Just like Plato’s ethics, political philosophies regonizes the soul as the central part that assures everybody stays within their position of society.