... within the bounds of mere reason. This was a theory that went against all of his previous convictions on the notions of good, evil and free-will. Previously, in Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785) and Critique of Practical Reason (1788), evil had been for Kant varying degrees of the absence of the capacity for good. He now claimed that man could not be good and evil in varying degrees but that he was either absolutely good or absolutely evil. He is free to either choose to adhere to the moral law or to deviate from it. This view has influenced many thinkers from the time of inception to this very day, famously including Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) who abandoned this idea for her theory on The Banality of Evil. It is the relationship between these ideas that I wish to discuss. I shall begin with a more comprehensive description ...

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