merely subjective end, my duty (and objective end). This requires to
be cleared up.

  Adversity, pain, and want are great temptations to transgression
of one's duty; accordingly it would seem that strength, health, a
competence, and welfare generally, which are opposed to that
influence, may also be regarded as ends that are also duties; that is,
that it is a duty to promote our own happiness not merely to make that
of others our end. But in that case the end is not happiness but the
morality of the agent; and happiness is only the means of removing the
hindrances to morality; permitted means, since no one bas a right to
demand from me the sacrifice of my not immoral ends. It is not
directly a duty to seek a competence for one's self; but indirectly it
may be so; namely, in order to guard against poverty which is a
great temptation to vice. But then it is not my happiness but my
morality, to maintain which in its integrity is at once my end and
my duty.

  VI. Ethics does not supply Laws for Actions (which is done by

      Jurisprudence), but only for the Maxims of Action

  The notion of duty stands in immediate relation to a law (even
though I abstract from every end which is the matter of the law); as
is shown by the formal principle of duty in the categorical
imperative: "Act so that the maxims of thy action might become a
universal law." But in ethics this is conceived as the law of thy
own will, not of will in general, which might be that of others; for
in the latter case it would give rise to a judicial duty which does
not belong to the domain of ethics. In ethics, maxims are regarded
as those subjective laws which merely have the specific character of
universal legislation, which is only a negative principle (not to
contradict a law in general). How, then, can there be further a law
for the maxims of actions?

  It is the notion of an end which is also a duty, a notion peculiar
to ethics, that alone is the foundation of a law for the maxims of
actions; by making the subjective end (that which every one has)
subordinate to the objective end (that which every one ought to make
his own). The imperative: "Thou shalt make this or that thy end (e.
g., the happiness of others)" applies to the matter of the elective
will (an object). Now since no free action is possible, without the
agent having in view in it some end (as matter of his elective
will), it follows that, if there is an end which is also a duty, the
maxims of actions which are means to ends must contain only the
condition of fitness for a possible universal legislation: on the
other hand, the end which is also a duty can make it a law that we
should have such a maxim, whilst for the maxim itself the
possibility of agreeing with a universal legislation is sufficient.

  For maxims of actions may be arbitrary, and are only limited by
the condition of fitness for a universal legislation, which is the
formal principle of actions. But a law abolishes the arbitrary
character of actions, and is by this distinguished from recommendation
(in which one only desires to know the best means to an end).

  VII. Ethical Duties are of indeterminate, Juridical Duties of

                    strict, Obligation

  This proposition is a consequence of the foregoing; for if the law
can only command the maxim of the actions, not the actions themselves,
this is a sign that it leaves in the observance of it a latitude
(latitudo) for the elective will; that is, it cannot definitely assign
how and how much we should do by the action towards the end which is
also duty. But by an indeterminate duty is not meant a permission to
make exceptions from the maxim of the actions, but only the permission
to limit one maxim of duty by another (e. g., the general love of
our neighbour by the love of parents); and this in fact enlarges the
field for the practice of virtue. The more indeterminate the duty, and
the more imperfect accordingly the obligation of the man to the
action, and the closer he nevertheless brings this maxim of
obedience thereto (in his own mind) to the strict duty (of justice),
so much the more perfect is his virtuous action.

  Hence it is only imperfect duties that are duties of virtue. The
fulfilment of them is merit (meritum) = + a; but their transgression
is not necessarily demerit (demeritum) = - a, but only moral unworth
= o, unless the agent made it a principle not to conform to those
duties. The strength of purpose in the former case is alone properly
called virtue [Tugend] (virtus); the weakness in the latter case is
not vice (vitium), but rather only lack of virtue [Untugend], a want
of moral strength (defectus moralis). (As the word Tugend is derived
from taugen [to be good for something], Untugend by its etymology
signifies good for nothing.) Every action contrary to duty is called
transgression (peccatum). Deliberate transgression which has become
a principle is what properly constitutes what is called vice (vitium).

  Although the conformity of actions to justice (i.e., to be an
upright man) is nothing meritorious, yet the conformity of the maxim
of such actions regarded as duties, that is, reverence for justice
is meritorious. For by this the man makes the right of humanity or
of men his own end, and thereby enlarges his notion of duty beyond
that of indebtedness (officium debiti), since although another man
by virtue of his rights can demand that my actions shall conform to
the law, he cannot demand that the law shall also contain the spring
of these actions. The same thing is true of the general ethical
command, "Act dutifully from a sense of duty." To fix this disposition
firmly in one's mind and to quicken it is, as in the former case,
meritorious, because it goes beyond the law of duty in actions and