Morality for some is a combination of the two, and both Hume and Kant describe morality as a matter of custom to a degree and also as deriving from the application of human reason rather than as an edict by God, though the two philosophers have different ideas about the truth of morality. Hume recognizes the role of reason in morality, but he also ries to place this in a specific context, stating that reason

Of course, Kant rejects ends as a test, but ends must play some role, even if it is only because the end is to behave in a moral fashion. The categorical imperative stands as a call for obedience as an end in itself, with the individual recognizing the need to perform so that his or her actions become universals for others. That in itself is an objective, or at least performs as an objective, the specific objective being to achieve a moral life. If a moral life were equated with happiness, as some try to do, Kant's objectives would be much diminished. Yet, a moral imperative not to be unfair and not to make the wrong choice would not seem to have that sort of consequence at all, while choosing on the basis of appearance alone would seem likely to lead to harm.

Kant makes a distinction between things as they appear to us and things as they are in themselves, a distinction between appearances and things in themselves. Appearances are all that can be known by us, but we can assume that behind the appearances are the things in themselves. This provides a rough distinction between a sensible world and an intelligible world, a world seen through the senses and a world we can never know but can determine by reason. We have a dual sense of what we can know. On the one hand we have the spontaneous power of understanding which produces from itself such concepts as that of cause and effect. Reason is the power of ideas, and it produces concepts which go beyond sense altogether. Reason shows a spontaneity which is independent of sense. We perceive ourselves to belong to the intelligible world and as subject to laws which have their basis in reason alone. The application of reason suggests that acting solely on the basis of appearance is counter-productive.

For Kant, ethical behavior creates a maxim, and a maxim is a subjective principle of volition, a principle on which the agent acts to determine his or her decisions. Kant's statement is another way of saying that the action will have moral worth because it will have been performed for the sake of duty because it is based on the maxim of obeying universal law as such. This also would mean that making decisions on the basis of appearance alone necessarily creates a maxim for others to follow and do the same. Actions thus lead to rules followed by others, and so making decisions on the basis of appearance creates the obligation for others to do the same. Again, this creates an unjust and illogical result, for appearance is demonstrably not a reliable indicator of value or ability or moral worth, making this approach to decision-making clearly false and so indefensible as a rule to be followed.

Doing so, however, goes against ideas of justice as described by Rawls, moral decision-making as discussed by Kant, and any approach that emphasizes the application of reason to moral decision-making. For Kant, for example, the application of reason seeks to determine how we ought to behave and decisions based solely on appearance discriminate in how we react to different faces, immediately including all those who look a certain way, and immediately excluding all those who look a different way. The result would clearly be limiting and might lead to the wrong result.

says that moral knowledge is a priori, meaning it exists before the fact. Such moral precepts determine how human beings ought to behave, and such precepts do not depend on actual behavior. We might say that we ought to tell the truth, for instance, and this informs us how to behave. This is true even if we all tell lies, and this would not change the fact that we ought to tell the truth. Thus, the pr

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