to weaken its philosophical and practical impact on human morality.
However, the question must be raised with respect to the basis of such moral reasoning in the context of free will. For Kant, the answer to such a question brings God into the equation. To Kant, man, left to his own devices, would create out of his own desires a concept of morality, which would hardly be applicable to the whole human race. Rather, it would reflect the desires of the individual. In other words, where does the will to be a moral being derive from, if not from the individual. Kant's answer is that our rational ideas about morality flow not from our "feelings," as Mill would have it, but from God. The following statements can be seen as Kant's own argument against utilitarianism, although Mill actually was born two years after Kant's death:
All principles . . . are either empirical or rational. The first kind, drawn from the principle of happiness, are based upon either physical or moral feeling. The second kind, drawn from the principle of perfection, are based either upon the rational concept of perfection as a possible effect of our will or else upon the concept of an independent perfection (the will of God) as a determining cause of our will (Kant 46).
Mill himself sets forth a number of arguments against utilitarianism, which he then claims to
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