Transcript Contemporary work = a group of people interacting to achieve some

Introductory Comments to
Kant’s Ethics
According to our textbook:
Contemporary work =
a group of people interacting to
achieve some common goals.
From the Introduction to HONEST
WORK, Section 2
Successfully achieving
these common goals
requires
standards about how the interacting
people should
treat each other.
From the Introduction to HONEST
WORK, Section 2
These standards
are
ethical standards
(this is what ethics is, principles
about how people should act,
especially the way they should treat
each other).
From the Introduction to HONEST
WORK, Section 2
Kant’s Ethics
as Discussed in
“Respecting the
Humanity in a
Person”
By Norman E. Bowie
Bowie’s article explains
Kant’s Ethics
• Kant’s ethics has two components, both of which
he calls the Categorical Imperative.
– The “Categorical” part mean “always, under any and
all circumstances, no matter what.”
• The first component (Kant call this the first
statement of the Categorical Imperative) is his
version of the Golden Rule.
• The second component (second statement of the
C.I.) is the Respect for Persons Principle)
The first statement of the Categorical Imperative is
Kant’s version of the Golden Rule.
“Act only on those ethical standards that you are
prepared to have applied to you and, moreover, are
prepared to legislate into universal law by your
action.”
– The first part of this is reversibility. Do unto others
only as you are prepared to have them do unto you.
– The second part of this is universalizability. Do not
do something unless you are prepared to have
everybody do it all of the time.
What does this first formulation of the
Categorical Imperative mean in practice?
• Take the example of cheating:
– It might be reversible. A person who cheats on a test
when he or she knows that others have studied might be
willing to have someone else cheat when he or she has
studied.
– However, it is not universalizable. No one would agree
to a testing system in which everyone is cheating all of
the time, because the resultant grades would have no
meaning or utility.
• Consequently, a “cheat when needed to avoid
failing” standard is not morally acceptable, and all
instances of cheating are unethical.
What does this first formulation of the
Categorical Imperative mean in practice?
• Take the example of breach of contract:
– It is not reversible. No business would be willing to have
another business break its contracts whenever convenient.
– It is not universalizable. No one would agree to a business
system in which contracts would be randomly upheld or
broken depending on what businesses felt was convenient
at the time. Commerce would simply become impossible.
• Consequently, a “break contracts whenever
convenient” standard is not morally acceptable, and
all instances of breaking contracts for purposes of
convenience are unethical.
The second formulation of the Categorical
Imperative is Kant’s
Respect for Persons Principle.
“Act only on those ethical standards that lead you to
treat humanity (other persons and also yourself)
always as an end and never as a means only.”
What does “treating humanity
as an end” mean?
• Treat people only as they have freely
consented to be treated beforehand.
• Develop each person’s capacity to freely
chose for him or herself the aims he or she
will pursue.
From Manuel G. Velasquez,
BUSINESS ETHICS
What does it mean to treat
something as “means only?”
• To treat it as an instrument to achieve our
interests.
• To attribute to it no other value than its
usefulness to us.
• To deny it any independent value of its
own.
Why is “means only” bad?
• Kant links the following together as the defining
essence of humanity:
– Rationality
– The ability for self-governance as opposed to
external causality
– Moral agency, especially in the sense of moral
responsibility
– “Dignity” = having a value beyond all price
• Treatment as “means only” literally denies a
person’s humanity.
What does this mean in practice?
• People must NOT be treated as objects incapable
of free choice.
• People must not be manipulated, deceived, or
otherwise unwillingly exploited to achieve the
self-interests of another.
• Objects must not be given more value than people.
• On a scale of value from 0 to 1, only people may
be assigned the value 1 (from Robert Hartman’s
Axiology)
How can our actions go wrong?
• By pursuing an end in a way to which
others cannot possibly consent, in
particular, the others affected by the pursuit.
• By pursuing an end that another cannot
share.
• By treating persons as having economic
value only.
Examples
• As “ends also”
– Employee agrees to an
unsafe job in return for
fair compensation.
– Employer makes
reduction in force its last
resort.
– Company enters into
contracts in good faith.
– Employer retrains/
relocates workers
displaced by automation
• As “means only”
– Employer lies to
employee about the safety
of the job.
– Employer uses
“downsizing” as it first
response.
– Company enters into
contracts with intent to
defraud.
– Employer automates
without concern/ response
to human cost.