Ethical Rigorism of Kant and Theological Moralism of Crusius

摘要

Kant is a well-known philosopher famous for his categorical imperative, which requires a human being to display purely moral determination to act. That is why his ethics is also often characterized as strictly rigorous. At the same time, Kant himself seems to try to eliminate all foreign components from the determination of will, including hope for God's remuneration or fear of God's punishment. Also, there exists a thinker who comes very close to Kant's views - Christian Crusius. Trying to explicitly distinguish his own position the views of Crusius, in his Critique of Practical Reason Kant claims Crusius to be a theological moralist and criticizes this way of foundation of basic moral principles. The article concerns both similarities and differences between the positions of these two great thinkers of German Enlightenment and attempts to answer the question whether the differences can be regarded as significant.