Abstract:

An important discussion about how the moral education should be conducted is held by Kant, the eminent philosopher of the 18th century. He gave lectures in Konigsberg for many years about the fundamentals of this education. In these lectures, Kant argued that moral education should be based on “maxims”. Therefore the question of what Kant means by maxim has a primary place for understanding his thoughts concerning moral education. To Kant maxim is the subjective principle of the will and the latter can only be morally confirmed as long as it agrees with the law as “the objective principle of the will”. Therefore the fundamental values to give one in one’s moral education are maxims and how maxims must be in compliance with the law. However, it is a problem that how to obtain the maxims. For this reason in this paper directly Kant’s life, the influence of the previous philosophers and particularly his philosophy are discussed. Maxims with the influence of previous philosophers and of his life are the original part of his philosophy and make this philosophy actual for the present. Finally Kant put forward four principles about the possibility of moral education: a) Teaching the maxims to be started at early ages; b) The value of action to be determined according not to punishment and reward but to the correspondence to the maxim; c) The moral education to be based on the maxims, not on the discipline; d) It is quite hard to give moral education by means of maxims. This difficulty demands parents and teachers to have a deep insight powerful understanding.

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