@Jahangir,
Jahangir wrote:
Does Kant say that everything, EVERY imaginable human act can be categorized as either good or bad? For example, the act of turning the lights on when its gets dark. How does Kant classify that? I don't see how you could see such an act as either good or bad. If its good, how does Kant see the 'a priori' contributing to it? Furthermore, how would Kant phrase the maxim for such an act?
What if I thought that the presence of light in darkness (night time) could lead to permanent blindness? Lets say I had been made to think in such a way because of what my parents and teachers taught me.
I think you're taking him a little too literally. I don't remember reading him saying every act as being classified as good or bad. I remember him putting differences on context of perception making laws and some laws being innate or was it immutable? Such as, killing is a contextual law while the need to turn the lights on are innate to all. "It's dark, I can't see; I need light." Actually, that's probably contextual too, since we'd only know about light if we experienced it.
Well, it was a long time ago when I studied him and it was only two writings. Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Practical Reason. I remember them both being challenging and humbling to read. They say brilliance is borderline crazy. Knowing the little I do about Kant's life, I think he's a good argument for that!