Freedom and its Capacity to Shape Morality How Kant’s understanding of freedom leads to being obliged to act morally

Abstract

In our everyday life we face a multitude of moral questions. Often these are not posed explicitly but, still, there are many delicate choices to be made: for example, whether or not we ought to be truthful to a friend knowing this will make her unhappy or whether we ought to scan all shopping goods at the self-service counter in the supermarket although we know that nobody would notice our leaving one out. Most of us have a clear opinion on what we think is right and what we think is wrong, but what is the ground for that? Questions as those posed in the examples above call for principles which guide us to right actions. What kind of principle for morality could there be? And if there is one, do we have the freedom to choose to act in accordance to it or is there an obligation which confines freedom in this sense? How can we be obliged to act morally? How does this relate to our freedom?