A propensity is “the subjective ground of an
inclination” a tendency to a “habitual desire.”
difference between an
original
predisposition and a
propensity, is that although a propensity is innate, it is
original predisposition to the good belongs “with necessity
to the possibility of this being…” We could not be
responsible for the adoption of evil maxims if the moral
law did not always have a hold upon us and thereby grant us
a capacity to do as we ought. Only if the moral law always
calls does evil even make sense.
However, Kant does not
offer an explanation of how the moral law always calls.
Speaking of the original predisposition, Kant merely says
that its “very incomprehensibility” proclaims its “divine
origin.”
I I
C o n v e r s i o n
For Kant our movement away from “radical evil” to our
“original predisposition to the good” occurs through a
21
Religion, AK 6:37; p. 59.
22
Religion, AK 6:29; pp. 52-53.
23
Human evil is never a diabolical adoption of evil as evil and an
utter rejection of the moral law. Religion, AK 6:37; p. 60.
24
Religion, AK 6:50, pp.69-70 [My italics].
9
Convention