What did you learn from Kant?
Do you think it is important to have something to hope for?
Do you think that delaying gratification helps you in your life overall? What would Kant say about that?
The big thing I took away from the Kant section was a better understanding of the age old question, "What makes a chair a 'chair'?" Kant believed that the way we as humans perceive something may not be the the way the thing actually exists. To put it in terms of the question, we say a chair is a "chair" because we say it is a "chair," but in reality that "chair" may be something completely different. It is only a "chair" to us because that is how we understand and perceive it to be given our frame of understanding.
I think it is extremely important to have hope and something to hope for. Hope is this incredible force that causes people to do the impossible. Hope for something is the reason we get out of bed in the morning. Hope is the force that keeps us going when our worlds come crashing down. Without hope, there is nothing to fend off the sadness and darkness in our world...
To me, I feel that delaying gratification does neither harm nor good to my life in the long run. Sure, in shorter time frames this action could be potentially beneficial or potentially detrimental depending on the context of the given situation. But overall, I don't feel that it would help nor harm my life, unless the gratification was delayed forever... then life would be sadder. As for Kant, I feel that he would say to do whatever you choose to do. He constantly stressed the importance of freedom and being free. He would say to do whatever made you more free. Basically he would want people to pick the choice with the least amount of influence.
The biggest thing that I took away from Kant was Free Will and that we as humans can make choices and think rationally and can use moral reasons to aid in these decisions. We all have the free will to choose to do the moral thing or the evil thing and we should try to do the right thing because it is the right thing, not for selfish reasons. As for the question about hope, after reading Craig's post above, I really can't put it any better. I agree wholeheartedly with what he said. If we don't have hope there is really no reason to go about our lives and without hope we lose the will to carry on. I feel like delaying gratification can help overall in life, but I also ago that Kant really harps on free will, so he would say to delay gratification when you feel it would help your life, and don't when you feel the opposite, as long as it makes you happy, since the goal of humanity is to achieve perfect happiness.
The big thing that I took away from the Kant section was that his groundwork focused on the metaphysics of morals. For instance, Kant states the only thing which is good without qualifications is a good will. Talents, character, self-control can be used to bad ends, even happiness can be corrupting. But, it is not what it achieves that constitutes the goodness of a good will, good will is good in itself alone. Also I think it is important to have something to hope for because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. So, if we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today. For the last question I fell like delaying gratification can help in ones overall life but, for me just like Craig said I feel like it does neither harm nor good to my life in particular. However, I feel like Kant would say that it's your choice to decide if delaying gratification helps you in your life overall. The reason why I think Kant would say its your choice to choose is because through out his work he stressed on the term of being free meaning it's all up to you and what makes you happy or more free. Therefore, he would want you to decide for yourself.
The big thing I took away from the Kant section was a better understanding of the age old question, "What makes a chair a 'chair'?" Kant believed that the way we as humans perceive something may not be the the way the thing actually exists. To put it in terms of the question, we say a chair is a "chair" because we say it is a "chair," but in reality that "chair" may be something completely different. It is only a "chair" to us because that is how we understand and perceive it to be given our frame of understanding.
ReplyDeleteI think it is extremely important to have hope and something to hope for. Hope is this incredible force that causes people to do the impossible. Hope for something is the reason we get out of bed in the morning. Hope is the force that keeps us going when our worlds come crashing down. Without hope, there is nothing to fend off the sadness and darkness in our world...
To me, I feel that delaying gratification does neither harm nor good to my life in the long run. Sure, in shorter time frames this action could be potentially beneficial or potentially detrimental depending on the context of the given situation. But overall, I don't feel that it would help nor harm my life, unless the gratification was delayed forever... then life would be sadder. As for Kant, I feel that he would say to do whatever you choose to do. He constantly stressed the importance of freedom and being free. He would say to do whatever made you more free. Basically he would want people to pick the choice with the least amount of influence.
The biggest thing that I took away from Kant was Free Will and that we as humans can make choices and think rationally and can use moral reasons to aid in these decisions. We all have the free will to choose to do the moral thing or the evil thing and we should try to do the right thing because it is the right thing, not for selfish reasons.
ReplyDeleteAs for the question about hope, after reading Craig's post above, I really can't put it any better. I agree wholeheartedly with what he said. If we don't have hope there is really no reason to go about our lives and without hope we lose the will to carry on.
I feel like delaying gratification can help overall in life, but I also ago that Kant really harps on free will, so he would say to delay gratification when you feel it would help your life, and don't when you feel the opposite, as long as it makes you happy, since the goal of humanity is to achieve perfect happiness.
The big thing that I took away from the Kant section was that his groundwork focused on the metaphysics of morals. For instance, Kant states the only thing which is good without qualifications is a good will. Talents, character, self-control can be used to bad ends, even happiness can be corrupting. But, it is not what it achieves that constitutes the goodness of a good will, good will is good in itself alone.
ReplyDeleteAlso I think it is important to have something to hope for because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. So, if we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.
For the last question I fell like delaying gratification can help in ones overall life but, for me just like Craig said I feel like it does neither harm nor good to my life in particular. However, I feel like Kant would say that it's your choice to decide if delaying gratification helps you in your life overall. The reason why I think Kant would say its your choice to choose is because through out his work he stressed on the term of being free meaning it's all up to you and what makes you happy or more free. Therefore, he would want you to decide for yourself.