Editing Meaning of life (section)

===Enlightenment philosophy===
{{Further|Enlightenment philosophy}}
The [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] and the [[colonialism|colonial era]] both changed the nature of European philosophy and exported it worldwide. Devotion and subservience to God were largely replaced by notions of inalienable natural rights and the potentialities of reason, and universal ideals of love and compassion gave way to civic notions of freedom, equality, and citizenship.

The meaning of life changed as well, focusing less on humankind's relationship to God and more on the relationship between individuals and their society. This era is filled with theories that equate meaningful existence with the social order.

====Kantianism====

[[File:Immanuel Kant - Gemaelde 1.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Immanuel Kant]]]]
[[Kantianism]] is a philosophy based on the [[ethical]], [[epistemological]], and [[Metaphysics|metaphysical]] works of [[Immanuel Kant]]. Kant is known for his [[Deontology|deontological]] theory where there is a single moral obligation, the "[[Categorical Imperative]]", derived from the concept of [[duty]]. Kantians believe all actions are performed in accordance with some underlying [[maxim (philosophy)|maxim]] or principle, and for actions to be ethical, they must adhere to the categorical imperative.

Simply put, the test is that one must universalize the maxim (imagine that all people acted in this way) and then see if it would still be possible to perform the maxim in the world without contradiction. In ''Groundwork'', Kant gives the example of a person who seeks to borrow money without intending to pay it back. This is a contradiction because if it were a [[moral universalism|universal action]], no person would lend money anymore as he knows that he will never be paid back. The maxim of this action, says Kant, results in a contradiction in conceivability (and thus contradicts perfect duty).

Kant also denied that the consequences of an act in any way contribute to the moral worth of that act, his reasoning being that the physical world is outside one's full control and thus one cannot be held accountable for the events that occur in it.