Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason

In this brief passage, Kant introduces two ideas that animate all of his thinking about religion and morality. First, he says that human beings are evil when they intentionally decide to act against their better judgment. Second, he says that immoral action is not simply a matter of acting on immoral impulses. Humans act according to maxims, or principles of action, and humans are evil when they knowingly create a maxim that allows occasional bad behavior. Evil involves intentionally formulating a principle that sanctions illicit actions. Evil, therefore, is not simply an action, it is a premeditated action performed in accordance with a set of principles.

Kant believes that we can never truly lose our predisposition to do what is right. We can, however, place our illicit, immoral desires ahead of our more respectable moral inclinations. In this quotation, Kant says that true moral behavior consists of subordinating our illicit, immoral desires to our respect for the moral law. We will always have self-serving, immoral impulses and desires, but as long as we quash them, we are behaving morally. Kant urges us to think of moral law as the ultimate ruler of our decisions, not as one consideration among many.

This comment shows one of the similarities between Kant's religious thought and Christianity. Kant believes that evil behavior does not simply result from a failure to do what is virtuous or morally sound. It results, rather, from an active, immoral predisposition in us. We have a "germ of … good," but we also have a germ of evil that we must work to combat. Kant says that good behavior will not develop naturally if we simply relax; it will only flourish if we counteract our tendency toward evil behavior.

Here Kant explains his idea that we must actively combat evil in order to become truly good. He says we must reform our own dispositions. Relying on God or Jesus will not help us out of a moral slump. Good, for Kant, is not an abstract that exists outside humans, but an inner resource that we all possess. Therefore, a refusal to be good is a refusal to draw on our own inner resources. Badness is not the fault of a defective personality, Kant says, but "self-incurred perversity," for it is perverse to turn your back on your own capacity for goodness. While we have the capacity for good, however, we also have the capacity for evil. We must draw on our goodness, but we must also believe that "absolute purity" exists, and model ourselves on that.

Kant says that adoption of his moral reason will happen gradually, and root itself into humans permanently. Once humans understand the principle behind "pure religion," and give the principle "mature reflection," they will begin to adopt it. Kant does not expect that his theories will take hold immediately. He understands that because this reform will be "a human work," it will necessarily happen through "gradual reform."