Kant. Reason. Moral Law. Propensity. Diabolical Will.

The discussion of evil in Kantian philosophy can be seen in two ways: in terms of actions, that is, in how good and evil are placed as schemes derived from the moral law, when actions are established as good or bad; and concerning the acting individual, that is, in the analysis of the individual's nature, in his character. Kant's main works that discuss the theme in the first form are Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals and Critique of Practical Reason. And the work that discusses the theme in the second form is Religion at the Limits of Mere Reason. As for evil from the individual, or what would be evil in the nature of the individual, when faced with the moral law in its pure reason, the human being has a disposition for good and a propensity for evil. Kant maintains that this propensity is distinguished in frailty (weakness of the will), impurity (action motivated by external interest), and malignity (decision to do evil), but not in a diabolical will (corruption of reason, reason free from the command of moral law). However, despite the philosopher's dismissal of such a condition in the human being, based on a pre-critical writing by Kant entitled Essay on the diseases of the head and his last writing Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view, the present thesis proposes sustain that a diabolical will as an inversion of reason can be configured in human beings in view of pathological affectations. Namely: the being who, by his pathological affectation opposes the moral law, can become irrational and invert reason, becoming a diabolic being (with reasons contrary to the moral law). While in the rational being, common sense is the objective representation of good and evil (with respect to the moral law), in the being pathologically affected in his will and becoming irrational, the private logical sense is the subjective representation of good and evil by its affectation (without respect to the moral law - evil being good and good being evil). This last configuration of being entails the inversion of reason and makes him a diabolical being.