Kant and Demystification of Ethics and Religion Journal Article

Kant's demystification is meant to put away any metaphysical and revealed elements from ethics and religion. Kant, fulfilling this, first argues that metaphysical questions of reason, from theoretical aspect, have no certain answers. In practical reason, he establishes his moral foundations, based on own human being without any referring to metaphysical bases. In fact, Kant places human being as the base, legislator and finally the end of ethics, so that the totality of morality is depended on itself him/her and there is no moral reality out of our humanly understanding. Kant, then, by confirming the necessity of rational religion, believes that the age of revealed religions have been expired, since they were belonged to the childhood age of human being’s reason, while in Kant’s rational religion, this is human being’s subjective intellect that defines the nature and function of God. Therefore, for Kant’s moral and rational religion, there is no credibility for affairs like miracles, blessings and prayers, since they indicate religious misguidance. In Kant’s rational pure religion, the religion is relied on human being’s pure reason in which his/her reason is the only criterion of religious beliefs. Therefore, for Kant, religion means recognizing our duties as divine judgments, and that such religion pertains to our mundane life not for worshiping God in order to get his satisfaction or benefitting his grace. In short, Kant’s religion and morality are totally depended on our humanly and earthy rationality and understanding, and that there is no mystery out of our humanly willing. So the mysteries that are claimed by revealed religions are meaningless, since our reason, itself, determines the nature, function and virtues of God, moral axioms and religious beliefs.

By considering rationalists viewpoints in Kant’s time in which they believed in ability of human being’s reason for recognizing all metaphysical realities of the world, and the crisis that was arisen from their thought, wonderful development of empirical sciences that had not concerned with metaphysical ideas, he finally draws his epistemological and scientific plan of the natural world which its objects are mundane and empirical things and there is no space for immaterial, mysterious and spiritual things and ideas. In fact, in this approach, God is the servant of our moral and mundane or spiritual needs that we determine how He should serve to us, and we are as the masters that determine moral duties of our servant who is God. Finally, Kant’s understanding of ethics is totally demystified from divinity, revealed and metaphysical teachings and truths, in which this is human being who based on his/her understanding and desires, builds, legislates, changes and defines the bases, axioms, principles and ends of ethics. In the other word, Kantian ethics and religion is not involved to deny God, they maybe need to believe in God in their end, so far as moral and rational certainty, however, have meaning only in the light of human being’s reason, then the nature of God, metaphysical affairs and mysteries should be understood by this humanly reason.