Excerpt from Philosophical Papers; Second Series, No; 4: The Ethics of Bishop Butler and Immanuel Kant

Kant opens the first of his ethical treatises with the now famous statement, "Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world or even out of it, which can be called good without qualification except the Good Will," and in developing the notion of the good will he first brings clearly into view the great difficulty of Idealistic ethics. For when we are told that somewhat is good, we at once ask for what is it good. If it is good at all, it must be good for something, and we thus conclude with Butler that its purpose or end must be outside of or beyond itself. This seems especially true of the will. As action, it is necessarily determined to some end, and its goodness would seem to consist in its adaptation to its purpose. With Hedonistic and Theological ethical writers (if there is any fundamental distinction between these) such has always been the view of will, but Kant on the contrary tells us that the good will is good in itself, not for anything beyond. 'It is good not because of what it can accomplish, but simply by virtue of the volition,' 'and considered by itself must be esteemed higher than anything that can be brought about by it.' 'Like a jewel it has its value wholly in itself.' Here then Kant comes in direct opposition to Hedonism.

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