Synthesized answer
Schopenhauer's critique of Kant's ethics focuses on several key areas. He argues that Kant's Categorical Imperative is a cleverly disguised version of the old theological basis for morality, with the latter serving as an essential, though hidden, support [1]. Schopenhauer believes Kant's attempt to derive Moral Theology from Ethics is akin to inverting a pyramid [1]. He also examines and dismisses Kant's concept of conscience as a half-supernatural element, defining it instead as self-knowledge through one's actions [1].
Furthermore, Schopenhauer criticizes Kant's foundational assumption that purely moral laws exist, stating that this assumption, made without prior investigation, forms the basis of Kant's entire system [2, 5]. He contends that Kant's famous leading principle is not truly categorical but hypothetical, as it implicitly assumes that the universalized law for one's own actions should also apply to actions taken against oneself. Without this presupposition, Schopenhauer suggests, one could indeed wish for injustice and hard-heartedness to be the general rule [4]. Schopenhauer also notes Kant's tendency to apply his method of separating the _a priori_ from the _a…
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
s with a searching critique of Kant's Ethical Basis, of the Leading Principle of his system, and of its derived forms. (Part II., Chapters I.-VI.)[4] Schopenhauer's conclusion is that the Categorical Imperative is a very cleverly woven web, yet in reality nothing but the old theological basis in disguise, the latter being the indispensable, if invisible, clothes' peg for the former; and that Kant's _tour de main_ of deducing his Moral Theology from Ethics is like inverting a pyramid. The theory of Conscience is next discussed (Chapter VII.). The half-supernatural element which Kant…
our conduct =ought= to be subject? Who tells you that that =ought to take place, which in fact never does take place=? What justification have you for making this assumption at the outset, and consequently for forcing upon us, as the only possible one, a system of Ethics couched in the imperative terms of legislation? I say, in contradistinction to Kant, that the student of Ethics, and no less the philosopher in general, must content himself with explaining and interpreting that which is given, in other words, that which really is, or takes place, so as to obtain an =understanding=…
t actually did ask, while the discussion, which it asserts was specially indicated, is not suggested by a single word. Its embarrassment is sufficiently shown by this unworthy shifting, to enlarge upon which would here be out of place.[3] It is not intended to offer any criticism either on Schopenhauer's main position in this essay, or on the various side-issues involved. The reader is supposed to be accurately acquainted with the fundamentals of his philosophy, as contained in _Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung_, and is invited to be the critic himself. But perhaps a few remarks…
ould subsequently, in the event of his playing a =passive= part, recall it, and so his will would =contradict= itself. From this analysis it is abundantly clear that Kant's famous leading principle is not--as he maintains with tireless repetition--a =categorical=, but in reality a =hypothetical= Imperative; because it tacitly presupposes the condition that the law to be established for what I do--inasmuch as I make it universal--shall also be a law for what is done to me; and because I, under this condition, as the _eventualiter_ non-active party, =cannot= possibly =wish= for…
Vol. I., § 69, of my chief work (_Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung_). CHAPTER IV. ON THE BASIS OF THE KANTIAN ETHICS. With the imperative Form of Ethics, which in Chapter II. we proved to be a _petitio principii_, is directly connected a favourite idea of Kant's, that may be excused, but cannot be adopted. Sometimes we see a physician, after having employed a certain remedy with conspicuous success, henceforth prescribing it for almost all diseases; to such a one Kant may be likened. By separating the _a priori_ from the _a posteriori_ in human knowledge he made the most brilliant…