Page "Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals" Paragraph 38

Kant writes, " A man even has an indirect duty to seek happiness.

The more he is troubled by the burdens of anxiety and need, the more he may be tempted to fail in his duty.

Even apart from duty, everyone has the most fundamental urge to be happy, since the idea of happiness more or less sums up in our minds the satisfaction of all our desires, cares, and needs.

" Section 1, Chp 3, part 1b.

Although Kant may claim utilitarianism is not sufficient, he also admits in this work at the end that his own foundations are lacking as well.

The Empiricists assert that the words good and evil are nothing other than pleasure and pain ( See Locke, Bentham, Hume, Spinoza, etc ...), to assert negatively that Kant would encourage an action that would lead to a greater amount of pain would be absurd, as this would be going against nature itself.

As the first rule of the categorical imperative was " 1.

Always act on a maxim which you can will to become a universal law of Nature ", to seek pain ( evil ) rather than pleasure ( good ) would break this first rule.