Physicians think they do a lot for a patient when they give his disease a name.
Immanuel KantRead
If you punish a child for being naughty, and reward him for being good, he will do right merely for the sake of the reward; and when he goes out into the world and finds that goodness is not always rewarded, nor wickedness always punished, he will grow into a man who only thinks about how he may get on in the world, and does right or wrong according as he finds advantage to himself.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Kant emphasizes that teaching morals solely through rewards and punishments can lead to self-serving behavior rather than true morality.
In this quote, Immanuel Kant warns against the dangers of conditional ethics where children learn to behave well only for the sake of rewards. He argues that if moral education is based purely on external incentives, individuals may fail to internalize genuine moral principles. As a result, they may grow up to be self-interested adults who act according to what benefits them, rather than adhering to a true sense of right and wrong.
Themes
MoralityEducationRewardPunishmentSelf-Interest
In practice
Example use cases
During a parenting seminar discussing effective ways to teach children values.
More from Immanuel Kant
All quotes →The inscrutable wisdom through which we exist is not less worthy of veneration in respect to what it denies us than in respect to what it has granted.
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One cannot avoid a certain feeling of disgust, when one observes the actions of man displayed on the great stage of the world. Wisdom is manifested by individuals here and there; but the web of human history as a whole appears to be woven from folly and childish vanity, often, too, from puerile wickedness and love of destruction: with the result that at the end one is puzzled to know what idea to form of our species which prides itself so much on its advantages.
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I shall never forget my mother, for it was she who planted and nurtured the first seeds of good within me. She opened my heart to the lasting impressions of nature; she awakened my understanding and extended my horizon and her percepts exerted an everlasting influence upon the course of my life.
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. . . as to moral feeling, this supposed special sense, the appeal to it is indeed superficial when those who cannot think believe that feeling will help them out, even in what concerns general laws: and besides, feelings which naturally differ infinitely in degree cannot furnish a uniform standard of good and evil, nor has any one a right to form judgments for others by his own feelings. . . .
Immanuel KantRead
Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.
Immanuel KantRead
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