Transcript Categorical Imperative

Categorical Imperative
Emmanuel Kant
(A.D. 18c)
Kant Joke
Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Kant.
Kant who?
Kant you stop these terrible jokes?
Kant rejects:
Heteronomy-allowing someone/something
else to decide which moral laws each
person should follow
This includes the divine command theory
and utilitarianism
Rejects societal standard for ethical
behaviour
Reason
• Kant promotes personal decision making
and responsibility
• Use reason to determine which actions are
“Good”
Good Will
• The ability to be motivated by reason or
maxims
• Motivated by duty -> how we ought to
behave
• Duty -- Deon
• Kant’s ethics are deontological (duty
based) as opposed to Aristotle’s ethics
which are teleological (end based)
How are these duties defined?
“Moral duty does not rest at all on feelings,
impulses and inclinations, but merely on
the relation of rational beings to one
another.”
Maxims
• By moral maxims
• Maxims are rules which are based on
principles that allow human beings to use
reason to create an ethic.
First Moral Maxim
• “I ought never to act except in such a way
that my maxim should become a universal
moral law.”
1st Moral Maxim
• Can I will that my action become a
universal moral law?
• Would I still perform my act if I know it
would become a universal moral law?
• Kant’s appeal is to logical consistency not
the consequences of the action.
Example
• I need money and have no way to pay it
back.
• No one will lend me money if I cannot pay
it back.
• Therefore, I will lie to acquire the money I
need.
Solution
• Here is the universal moral law that is
being created by acting in such a manner.
• Ask yourself this question:
• If all people in this world made promises
that they had no intention of keeping could
this become a universal moral law?
Answer
• The answer is no. Kant does not argue
that the consequences of the action are
bad therefore the action is bad.
• He makes the argument that the practice
of promise keeping would become
impossible.
• Kant also argued that some actions are
wrong because we are not willing to have
everyone act in such a way.
• Would a society function where every
person discriminates based on race?
• Possibly, but this, Kant argues, is a society
we would not want to live in.
2nd Moral Maxim
• “So act in such a way as to treat humanity,
whether in your own person or in that of
any other always as a means and never
merely as an end.”
2nd Moral Maxim
• Kant argued that each person had a fundamental dignity
that gives each person a value beyond price.
• Thus, it is wrong to use people without their consent for
our own selfish desires.
• Morality requires that we always give others the
opportunity to decide for themselves whether they wish
to join in our actions.
• This rules out all forms of coercion, deception, force or
manipulation.
• The implication is that we should promote people’s
capacity for freedom.
Objections
• Is the right thing to be honest in all
circumstances?
• Is withholding information the same as
telling lies?
• Is allowing a person to continue with a
false belief a form of lying?
Kevin Carter - Photographer
• How do duty and autonomy go together?