Now, as the ethical
obligation to ends, of which there may be many, is only indeterminate,
because it contains only a law for the maxim of actions, and the end
is the matter (object) of elective will; hence there are many
duties, differing according to the difference of lawful ends, which
may be called duties of virtue (officia honestatis), just because they
are subject only to free self-constraint, not to the constraint of
other men, and determine the end which is also a duty.
Virtue, being a coincidence of the rational will, with every duty
firmly settled in the character, is, like everything formal, only
one and the same. But, as regards the end of actions, which is also
duty, that is, as regards the matter which one ought to make an end,
there may be several virtues; and as the obligation to its maxim is
called a duty of virtue, it follows that there are also several duties
of virtue.
The supreme principle of ethics (the doctrine of virtue) is: "Act on
a maxim, the ends of which are such as it might be a universal law for
everyone to have." On this principle a man is an end to himself as
well as others, and it is not enough that he is not permitted to use
either himself or others merely as means (which would imply that be
might be indifferent to them), but it is in itself a duty of every man
to make mankind in general his end.
The principle of ethics being a categorical imperative does not
admit of proof, but it admits of a justification from principles of
pure practical reason.
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