Passage II (Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, 1785, Preface; tr. T. K. Abbott, 1873)
Logic cannot have any empirical part; that is, a part in which the universal and necessary laws of thought should rest on grounds taken from experience; otherwise it would not be logic, i.e. a canon for the understanding or the reason, valid for all thought, and capable of demonstration. Natural and moral philosophy, on the contrary, can each have their empirical part, since the former has to determine the laws of nature as an object of experience; the latter the laws of the human will, so far as it is affected by nature: the former, however, being laws according to which everything does happen; the latter, laws according to which everything ought to happen. Ethics, however, must also consider the conditions under which what ought to happen frequently does not.
Which two statements are correct?
- A. For natural philosophy, nature as an object of experience determines the laws.
- B. For moral philosophy, nature is to be experienced.
- C. Natural philosophy does not describe how things actually happen.
- D. Moral philosophy accounts for what ought to be.
Pick an option to check yourself, or open the answer below.
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Correct answer: D. A and D only
Explanation
Natural philosophy gives the laws by which everything does happen, moral philosophy those by which everything ought to happen.
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