Term Papers on Kanflict: How Humans Have Risen Above The Divine

Term Paper Title	Kanflict: How Humans Have Risen Above The Divine
# of Words	877
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.51

Kanflict: How Humans Have Risen Above The Divine

        November 23, '96
        Philosophy: Lily
        Nov.22

           Until Emmanuel Kant, God, primarily the western Religion of
Christianity's concept of God, was of an elevated stature over humans when
concerning  the issue of morality. This however was to be questioned due to this
philosophers works on this subject. All philosophers preceding him also tried to
solve and define this mystical thing called moral good.

           For Kant this journey had a side benefit. He discovered that it was
all more impressive to be good as a human than God itself. For a human to do the
right or moral thing means that a decision must be made; to side with the
duality within each person, to be moral or follow the animalistic nature of
inclination. This inclination is the desire, primarily, to be happy.

           To be moral means adhering to codes of goodness and selflessness.
This might involve running into a burning building to rescue a child. This
doesn't make one happy, because one doesn't say, "I could die or I could live.
Ya know, I think I'll take the first option…Yippee." This seems ludicrous, that
one would chose the good of one over the good of another, and not chose yourself.
But this is what elevates us above the rest of the life on the planet, that we
will chose to serve the laws of morality and justice, while putting aside one's
own happiness.

           God on the other hand has no such decision to make. God only knows
morality. There is no weighing or balancing of conflicting agendas, be it
morality or desire.  This is what I choose to tag "Kanflict." God's decision is
all the less impressive because morality is the only option.

           For us humans it is all the more difficult and therefore impressive
to choose morality over desire to serve our own happiness. Kant has therefor
shown that Plato's analogy of the Ring Of Gygies is not the perfect life, that
Hobbes was wrong when he said that the best life was to be able to do whatever
suited our desires. He has shown this to be false with the fact that humans feel
a contradiction in our own will. In other words, we feel guilty and awful after
we have chosen the less glorious, but all the more easy and gratifying in the
short term, way out called desire.

           This contradiction is caused by a series of things which Kant
outlines and discusses in his discussion of the Metaphysical. A few of these
components are: a priori, a posteori, maxim, will, and law. These are simply
words for the parts that make up a decision, and it is important t...

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