For Kant, the rational will is the source of value:
“Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good, without qualification, except a Good Will”
[This makes Kant a constructivist, value is a product of human will]
3 Sources of motivation:
1. Self-interest (inclination)Only actions done from the motive of duty have moral worth.
2. Sympathy (inclination)
3. Duty
He sympathizes with Dramer Braune because Braune saved his life. However, he knows that duty compels him to take his life as a punishment for treason and espionage.
“Mr. Brune, whatever your conscience may permit you to be, you saved
my life at what you must have believed the cost of your own. Until
I saw you yesterday when halted by my sentinel I believed you dead—thought
that you had suffered the fate which through my own crime you might easily
have escaped…Ah, Brune, Brune, that was well done—that was great—that—”
The captain’s voice failed him; the tears were running down
his face and sparkled upon his beard and his breast…
Captain Hartroy had recovered his composure. He turned
to the officer and said: “Lieutenant, go to Captain Graham and say that
I direct him to assume command of the battalion and parade it outside the
parapet. This gentleman is a deserter and a spy; he is to be shot
to death in the presence of the troops. He will accompany you, unbound
and unguarded.”
Although our own will is the source of value, Kant is not a subjectivist:
Need two modes of evaluation:
1. Act only on that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law. (Ignore)Treating someone as an end in herself:
2. So act as to treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, in every case as an end in itself, never as a means only.
The waitress is a means to your getting your sandwich, but if you treat her as worthy of respect, regardless of what she can do for you, then you treat her as a means and an end in herself.
Again, Captain Hartroy and Dramer Braune provide an example.
When exposed as a Confederate spy, Braune beseeches Hartroy:
"My life is fairly yours, but if you wish it taken in a more formal way than by your own hand, and if you are willing to spare me the indignity of marching into camp at the muzzle of your pistol, I promise you that I will neither resist, escape, nor remonstrate, but will submit to whatever penalty may be imposed."While reminding Braune of his crime, Hartroy allows him to maintain his dignity:
"The officer lowered his pistol, uncocked it, and thrust it into its place in his belt. Brune advanced a step, extending his right hand. “It is the hand of traitor and a spy,” said the officer coldly, and did not take it. The other bowed.
“Come,” said the captain, “let us go to the camp; you shall not die until to-morrow morning.”
He turned his back upon his prisoner, and these two enigmatical men retraced their steps and soon passed the sentinel, who expressed his general sense of things by a needless and exaggerated salute to his commander."