But this is not the course Kant takes in the Metaphysics of Morals. The most basic aim of moral philosophy in the Second Critique and, and so also of the Groundwork, is, in Kant’s view, to ‘seek out’ the foundational principle of a ‘metaphysics of morals,’ which Kant understands as a system of a priori moral principles that apply the CI to human persons in all times and cultures. In this sense, if Kant’s mature writings are labeled empty formalism
non-self-standing philosophical problem, irrespective of its historical context or systematic place in Hegel’s theory. The will must be acting on a law and cannot be acting merely randomly. The only law follows a law like, e.g. universalizable maxim. Law-giving force is reciprocal with moral law in the Analytic, when one is following the moral will, one is acting independently of one's contingent desires, that is,