Read this.

@BlipBlop forgot to tag you, click on link in prev. post.

Thank you! Do you maybe have an opinion on this? I can write more or less what it's all about but can't really figure out what I think about all this

Coming up with what you think about it takes longer. Try writing down what you think the quote means, keep doing it until you think you've covered every aspect of it, and how every aspect relates to every other aspect... At some point you'll find things you either don't understand or find weird. If you find something weird, maybe you disagree with it, and at that point you've found a critical opinion of it.

Informed opinions begin with "huh", then you compare "huh" to what's happened before. Find the huh! Then you'll find the comparison.

"What does Kant mean when he claims that:"

First of all that's one of those blatantly illogical, in its literal interpretation, state university questions that propelled me to grab my summa cum and flee their non-thesis masters fellowship for the mundane of Earth's forests. The only source in the Universe for Kant's meaning is Kant.
...a philosophy class .?. So, this is how we "educate" philosophers.?. It feels like programming to destroy literal thinking.

Otherwise, I have nothing, am no help, and am a nobody in that order of grammatical delirium.

Kant is pretty difficult to read. This passage - link below, explains quite well:

"If then there is a supreme practical principle or, in respect of the human will, a categorical imperative, it must be one which, being drawn from the conception of that which is necessarily an end for everyone because it is an end in itself, constitutes an objective principle of will, and can therefore serve as a universal practical law. The foundation of this principle is: rational nature exists as an end in itself."

In short, what he's saying is that human beings are ends in themselves; not a means to an end - because they have a rational nature.

It's like, I go to the supermarket - and there's someone behind the counter. I completely forget they are a human being with feelings - (an end in themselves.) Gimme this, gimme that. I'd rather they had buttons so I could just poke them to get my stuff. (a means to an end.)

Human beings are an end in themselves because they are possessed of a rational nature, and that places a limit on your freedom as to how you act with regard to them. You can't just poke them.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-classicreadings/chapter/immanuel-kant-on-moral-principles/

Sorry I Kant help.

“This principle of humanity and of every ration al nature generally as an end in itself is the supreme limiting condition of every man’s freedom of action” — BlipBlop

Break it down. The subject of the sentence is "This principle." What about "this principle"? Well, it's a principle of humanity. Is that all? Well, also of every rational nature generally.

So it would seem we're concerned with a principle that concerns human beings in their rational nature, and as a species of the genus of all beings possessing a rational nature in so far as their rational nature is an identifying characteristic.

Whew! Now we know what we're talking about. Or almost. there's an important part: "as an end in itself." What does that mean? This is a little tricky and difficult. Likely you shall have to be satisfied, at least for a while, with understanding only in part and incompletely. The idea is that some things are for some other thing. And some other things are for themselves and not for some other thing. For example, keeping promises. Is that for something else, or for itself? That is, should you honor and keep your promises, and if yes, why?

One answer is that you should keep promises so that people won't think you're a jerk. Or again so that in the future people will accept your promises. Or to get votes. In these cases the thing is for something else; you're keeping your promises to get something.

But is this what Kant means? "As and end in itself," Kant means that you should keep your promises for the sake of keeping promises and that reason - your rational nature - tells you this. To understand this requires thinking about what, exactly, a promise is and how a promise works. In brief, a promise is your asking for something, based on your future performance. If you break your promise, not (for example) paying your debt that you promised to repay, then you will have undermined and betrayed the very idea of the promising itself, thus by your action destroying it.

Kant is saying that reason tells you not to act so as to destroy that very logic underlying you action, thus destroying the action itself. And it's not quite this simple, but it's only one sentence we're taking apart.

Now the "is." "Is" what? "The supreme limiting condition of every man's freedom of action." This principle, then, limits ("is the supreme limiting condition") your freedom of action. But freedom means you can do anything you want! Well, no, not for Kant. And here we should distinguish between abilities, capacities, license, urges, desires, & etc., and freedom.

The sentence is saying that freedom is not anything brute, but is instead constituted in reason. Your action, to be free, must be reasoned and reasonable. (Again, not quite this simple.) And if it is not, then it is not free. And if it is not, then it is not free. Worth a second look. For Kant, freedom is not any "Hey look what I can do," kind of action, but is instead, and only is, that which reason allows. Obviously this is not a common or even popular understanding of the word "freedom." But it is the correct understanding of the word. Chew on this for a while and it will start to become clear how this establishes a bound, a limit, on "every man's," and every rational being's freedom. And a supreme limit, because it is grounded in itself and nothing else.

:rofl: :up:

I can remember struggling over a Kant essay. I was writing about the whole issue of means and ends and the topic I chose to focus on for some of the discussion was prostitution. So, that is an example of a life issue which you could think about and discuss.