Transcript Social Ethics continued

Social Ethics continued
Immanuel Kant
John Rawls
Immanuel Kant
Expanding on Individual Morality,
“Duties To One’s Self,” Kant explores
our duties to others
For Kant, our own happiness and
“good,” brought about by Self-Duty,
must be qualified by an Other-Duty to
remain pure
Duty Grounded In Reason
Other-Duty is Nonconsequentialist: it has
nothing to do with results, only with the
actions themselves
Moral Law is universal and binding: it
applies to all things
Humans, as rational, are capable of
acting in accordance with this law, and
so we must: this is our Other-Duty
The Categorical Imperative 1
“Act only according to that rule whereby
you can at the same time will that it
should become a universal law”
Moral laws should operate as rules that
cannot be contradicted and that apply to
everyone
Categorical Imperative 1, cont.
For example, “Never help others, but
always be helped by them” doesn’t work,
because of its logical inconsistency
A moral rule, or “maxim,” has to be
logical in order to be acceptable as a
guiding principle: Reason is the Rule
Categorical Imperative 2
“Act in such a way that you treat
humanity… always at the same time as
an end and never merely as a means to
an end.”
We can never exploit others for our own
ends: there must be a respect for the
humanity of the all
Formalistic Criteria
 Universality: it applies in all events
 Rationality: it must be reasonable
 Consistency: it must be consistent in all cases
 Reversibility: it must be reversible in all cases
 Prescriptivity: it must prescribe or condemn
 Impartiality: it must apply to all people, and
 Unconditionality: we can’t avoid morality just
because we want to - it is binding
John Rawls (1921- 2002)
American philosopher born in Baltimore,
Maryland
Studied at Cornell University, and
earned his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1950
Rejected Utilitarianism for a system of
his own creation: A Theory of Justice
Social Contract Theory
Rawls based his ideas on the Social
Contract notions of Locke, Rousseau,
and Kant
The idea is that we all live and function
together based on unspoken
agreements which make this possible
The Identity of Interests
In society, social cooperation allows for
a better life for all than would be possible
for any single person surviving through
their own efforts
These cooperations are all defined and
adopted according to an agreement
about the meaning of “justice”
The Original Position
Rawls’ basic concept states that, in a
hypothetical Original Position of
humanity, before we are born, we exist
behind a Veil of Ignorance which keeps
us from knowing who we will be and
what will become of us when we exit the
Original Position and enter the world
The Original Position, cont.
Rawls explores this idea in order to
determine which principles of justice and
equality we would all agree to from
within the Original Position: not knowing
where we’ll land, what can we all agree
to about how we should organize
society?
Equal Liberty & Difference
Two principles derive from the OP:
Equal Liberty: one should have as much
freedom as is possible which doesn’t
impinge on another’s freedom; and
Difference: difference leads to some
necessary inequalities, which are
acceptable only in that they serve
society as a whole
The Maximin Solution
Rawls thus arrives at his Maximin
Solution: that choice among choices with
the best possible “worst outcome” is the
correct choice in a situation
We should maximize results for those
who are minimally advantaged