148 Kant: A BiographyTo have character is not necessarily to have a morally good character.
There are good characters and there are bad characters, and while Kant
believes that it is better to have character in either sense than to have no
character at all, good or moral character is better. How do we judge whether
character is good or bad? By the maxims, of course! Maxims are decisive
for judging the goodness of our character because the goodness of char¬
acter depends upon the goodness of the maxims. If someone has a good
character, then she also has good maxims, and if someone has good maxims,
then she has a good character, and this is all that counts. (Someone without
maxims is neither good nor bad. He is not moral at all but simply an instru¬
ment or a thing, ruled by his animal instincts.) Furthermore, the actions
are not very important — at least not directly. In the anthropology, Kant goes
so far as to say that actions really do not matter at all, and that it is really
just the maxims that count in moral evaluations: "what is decisive in prac¬
tical matters is not whether one has done a good action at one time (or
other), but rather it is the maxim."^8
"Someone who does not have character does not have maxims either."^9
Indeed, "character depends on the rule of maxims." It is the distinguish¬
ing mark of human beings as freely acting beings, and "it is called the
Denkungsart or the way of thinking."^10 In other words, character limits
freedom by maxims and consists in the firmness of maxims. Only a man
with a constant character can be called good. To be good, he must have good
maxims, and they must be constant. We are worth only as much as our
maxims are worth. This means that we must legislate for ourselves, and
that we must not rely on our feelings and inclinations. Indeed, character
cannot be based on feelings, but must always be founded on maxims of
reason. They have a definite purpose and are not free-floating rules. All
this has relevance for a better understanding of Kant's mature philosophy,
but it is also extremely important for understanding Kant's own develop¬
ment as a person. Since discovery, formulation, and adoption of maxims
make for character, the moral rebirth of a person amounts to the beginning
of a life according to maxims.
It is safe to assume that Kant underwent such a rebirth at about forty,
and that as a result of it he consciously withdrew from the "whirlpool of
societal diversions," which had swept him along before. Here is the source
of what Borowski called "Kant's true nature according to all who knew him,
namely his constant striving to live in accordance with reasoned principles,
which were at least in his own view well founded." He strove to "formulate
certain maxims in all large and small, important and unimportant matters,