Kant and Utilitarianism are two opposite theories of the nature of morality. Utilitarianism is about the increase of overall happiness, which refers to the outcome of an action. They are usually referred to as consequentialists because they look at the the consequences of a proposed action to determine the decision and its morality. Kant on the other hand looks at the will of a person to determine the nature of morality. By will he is talking about the feeling that a person has about the action right before the action takes place and right after his/her intentions. It is the chemical reactions that take place in the brain that cause the action to occur. You can think of it like this, Picture yourself standing at the foul line preparing to shoot a free throw. Your intentions are to make the basket and score a point, the action is releasing the ball from your hands and pushing it toward the basket, the will is the brain signal that shoots through your body that causes you to say “now is the best time to sink the shot” and makes you start the shot. Kant would say that your action would be moral because you made it out of good will. The utilitarian would say that if you made the basket it was moral because it would give you another point and make you one step closer to winning the game, which would increase overall happiness, and if you didn’t then it would be immoral.
