146 Kant: A Biographyfrom acting impulsively, from being swept away by emotions and thus act¬
ing foolishly. Though we know this well from Kant's writings, some of us
may be annoyed by his insistence that we really can act only in one of two
mutually exclusive ways - either by instinct or by reason - and that "as
human beings we live according to reason, and should therefore limit the
incentives (Triebfedern) of animality by maxims of reason and not allow any
inclination to become too strong."^6 That's pure Kant. Insistence on ration¬
ality is one of the essential aspects of Kant, and it should not be expected
that Kant would contradict in his anthropology lectures what he endorsed
in his published works. So, nothing surprising here.
What might be surprising, at least to those who have read recent sec¬
ondary literature on Kant's ethics, is that maxims are meant to be relatively
and perhaps even absolutely constant. It does not seem to make sense for
Kant to speak of maxims that are temporarily adopted. Maxims that would
serve us at a certain moment or on one occasion, but that might be aban¬
doned again at other times, are not really maxims in Kant's sense of the
word. This does not mean that once a maxim has been universalized it does
indeed hold universally, even if I never have to act on it again. Rather, it
means that maxims are the kind of things that we must act on all the time.
They are real principles by which we live. Once we have adopted something
as a maxim, we need to follow it. So, a maxim must be the kind of rule that
can be followed, that is, one that has relevance in our daily lives, not some
artificial principle. Thus "Always be first through the door" and "Never
eat fish on Friday" are indeed maxims, but a principle such as, "Whenever
it is Friday, and the sun is shining, and there is a white piece of paper lying
at this intersection, and there are exactly five leaves on the tree to the right,
I will not obey the red light" is not a maxim. Such a "principle" is not the
kind of rule we can live by. Even "Never eat fish on Friday" is a maxim, in
Kant's sense, only if the person who formulated it is willing to live by it
for the rest of his life. Constancy and firmness are required characteristics
of maxims. Once accepted, they must not be revoked - ever. Or so Kant
suggests.
Given this irrevocable character of maxims, it should not be surprising
that there must be relatively few, in Kant's view. Maxims are really the most
basic rules of conduct and thinking. We should not, therefore, attribute to
Kant the view that it is necessary to formulate maxims for every particular
act we can imagine. This is another reason why it would be a mistake to
think of our moral life as one of constant evaluation of maxims of action.
The adoption of a maxim should be viewed as a rare and very important