Transcript Setting the state for Kant

Setting the state for Kant
--Are there any acts that are wrong, regardless of
the consequences? (Are consequences all that
matter?)
--Case: Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki
--intentionally killing innocent people
(murder).
Kant’s Moral Theory
• The central concept of morality:
• Obligation
• What is the nature of a moral imperative?
– Universal
– Categorical
Formula of Universal Law
“Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the
same time will that it should become universal law.”
(128)
Application in a particular case
--determine your maxim
--formulate the maxim as a universal law
--determine whether you could will that law
The lying promise
• Maxim:
• Universal law:
• Can I will it?
Formula of Humanity as an End
• “Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your
own person or in that of another, always as an
end and never as a means only” (137).
• Two kinds of value: price, dignity
– Rational agents have unconditional value:
dignity. This commands respect.
• The case of the lying promise.
Problems for Kant’s Theory
• Is it always morally wrong to lie?
• Cases of conflicting obligations?
– “Do not lie”
– “Do not facilitate murder”
• Non-human Animals?
Kant’s insight
• Moral imperatives are universal
• Human beings deserve moral respect