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  • 2 - Happiness in the Groundwork

  • Edited by Jens Timmermann, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book:
    Kant's 'Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals'
    Published online:
    04 August 2010
    Print publication:
    24 December 2009, pp 29-44

  • Summary

    Immanuel Kant begins the Groundwork by putting happiness in its place. Kant first introduces happiness in the Groundwork as 'that complete wellbeing and satisfaction with one's condition' (G IV 393), and a little later links it with 'enjoyment of life' (G IV 396). Kant never explicitly explains what he takes satisfaction to be, but he does introduce a second conception of happiness, on which he concentrates in the rest of the Groundwork. The good will is unconditionally valuable, esteemed beyond all comparison, according to Kant. According to Kant's conception of happiness, complete happiness is the satisfaction of all of the desires. According to Kant, action is based on maxims, subjective principles that the agent wills. Prudential reasons generate a kind of hypothetical imperative, since they are requirements that depend on the setting an end for themselves.