Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason by Immanuel Kant

The good or evil heart depends on the natural propensity to adopt or not adopt the moral law in its maxims. There are three different grades to this, first is the frailty of the human heart, the second is the adulterate moral incentives and the last is the propensity to adopt evil maxims. Kant further goes on to explain these grades and states that even the best human beings have this natural propensity to commit evil and hence it is universal. However, the law does not differentiate on the basis of morals. The propensity is rooted in the human being but we can not solely associate evil to the human beings i.e. as something natural. The human beings have the free will to choose and decide their own maxims of morality, which if challenge the moral code will be deemed immoral. Kant talks about the dishonesty coming out of the dichotomy between the heart and the will. There are three degrees of guilt resulting from the dishonesty, innate guilty, unintentional guilt and deliberate guilt.

The origin can be traced in terms of reason or in terms of time. The representation of reason can be seen in the fact that the origin of moral constitution here means the ground of the exercise of freedom. It is not important to consider the propensity when you talk about the origin of evil. Every action must be judged as an original exercise of his power of choice, it will be judged as though the human being was in a state of innocence. The duty of the evil human being is now and another human being doing the same act will be deemed just as immoral. In order for us to universally adopt an origin we must ignore the origin in time and only look at the origin in reason. The scriptures state the origin of evil is in the human beings. The command is downgraded in favour of reason and the use of our own rationality. The contingence existence of the moral character needs to be explained. The original predisposition of human beings is good, however the disposition of evil has to come from moral evil so there is some disharmony in our power to choice with respect to the way it incorporates lower incentives and make them supreme. The scriptures state the first beginning of evil is incomprehensible to human beings and human beings have been tempted towards it. The human being still has a good will so he can be tempted back to the good side. We can never lose this incentive for the good and if we do, we will not be able to restore it. The original good is holiness of maxims in the compliance to one’s duty. When the maxims are stable in the observance of duty, the human being finds himself as being virtuous.