Cultivating Talent
CI, unlike the theory of utility, is turning the search for morality in our actions exhausting as with every page we turn, we encounter a deeper meaning to the “supreme moral principle”
It is quite apparent by now there is little or no room for exceptions with Kant. Inclinations, personal gains, in other words overall the consequences of our actions play little or no role in determining the moral worth of our deeds.
We resort to finding morality in the rational thought process that as higher beings we have been endowed, and most importantly in the following algorithm of CI: “Act only in such a way that you could will your maxim into universal law”.
Let’s take the issue of talent cultivation. As free beings, one would be of the thought that it is a personal decision to cultivate talents that are innate; after all the talents are personal and the choice should be left to the individual whether to be honed or not.
Kant agrees that the talents are given to the individual to serve him and for all sorts of special purposes (287). The morality in not cultivating those innate talents reside in the aforementioned algorithm. The choice to not cultivate those talents is considered to be the maxim. That maxim will go against already established universal law.
Not cultivating one’s talent can not be willed into universal law. We are proned to harness our raw talent, as we already know, once one individual goes against the prescribed maxim law by an actor, that maxim can not be will into universal law.
Therefore, it is immoral to not cultivate one’s talent.
crowdedumbrella said,
thUTCp30UTC11bUTCTue, 13 Nov 2007 18:49:20 +0000 22, 2007 at UTCpm2030UTCTue, 13 Nov 2007 18:49:20 +000011 2030pm1113pmTue, 13 Nov 2007 18:49:20 +000013 304911UTC
You state talents are given to an individual. I propose that some talents are earned and created by an individual. For instance I had very little natural athletic ability growing up. However I worked at certain sports and with a lot of practice became somewhat talented at them. This certainly can’t be considered a born talent, unless one was to go as general as “the ability to train muscles and my brain is a talent to begin with”. So in a case like this, where the individual has manifested their own talent, would it still be immoral for them to stop training and lose the talent?