Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: Humanity as an End

“Things that we want only because they are useful to us have a value that depends on our wishes; if we stopped wanting them, they would be worth nothing.Such things are called things. But rational beings are called persons, because their very nature marks them out as ends in themselves, as something that must not be used merely as a means.Rational nature exists as an end in itself. Every human being thinks of his own existence in this way, and every other rational being does the same, on the same grounds.

So the practical imperative will be this: Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of any other, always at the same time as an end, and never merely as a means.Take again the man who makes a lying promise to others. He sees at once that he wants to use another person merely as a means, as a tool for his own purpose.For the person he deceives cannot possibly agree to being treated in this way, and so cannot share the purpose of the action.

Now imagine a world in which every rational being is both a lawmaker and a member, bound only by the laws that it gives itself. This is the kingdom of ends.In the kingdom of ends everything has either a price or a dignity.Whatever has a price can be replaced by something else of equal value; whatever, on the other hand, is above all price, and therefore has no equivalent, has a dignity.Skill and hard work have a market price; wit and imagination have a fancy price; but faithfulness to promises and kindness from principle have an inner worth, that is, dignity.

Morality is the only condition under which a rational being can be an end in itself, because only through it can he be a lawmaking member of the kingdom of ends.So morality, and humanity as far as it is capable of morality, is the only thing that has dignity.The dignity of a rational being lies in this: it obeys no law except the one that it also gives to itself. This is the autonomy of the will.”