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Read the handout about Kant, which you can find at:

http://www.geocities.com/silviosergio/reading.html

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Extra info about Immanuel Kant

Kant developed his moral philosophy in three works: Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals (1785), Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and Metaphysics of Morals (1797).

The three works proceed by a method of taking the rational (obvious, and everyday) knowledge of the moral to the philosophical (knowledge of the moral) in the Groundwork. The latter works followed a method of using "practical reason", which is based only upon things about which reason can tell us, and not deriving any principles from experience, to reach conclusions which are able to be applied to the world of experience (in the second part of The Metaphysic of Morals).

Kant is known for his theory that there is a single moral obligation, which he called the "Categorical Imperative", and is derived from the concept of duty. It is from the Categorical Imperative that all other moral obligations are generated, and by which all moral obligations can be tested (421). He believed that the moral law is a principle of reason itself, and is not based on contingent facts about the world, such as what would make us happy, but to act upon the moral law which has no other motive than "worthiness of being happy" (Critique of Pure Reason, A806/B834). Accordingly, he believed that moral obligation applies to all and only rational agents (408).

From Wikipedia.