Transcript Kant: Kingdom of Ends and Broader Issues

Kant: Kingdom of Ends and
Broader Issues
Phil 240, Intro to Ethical Theory
Ben Hole, W5,L5
Administrative
- Notes
- Questions
No clicker quiz!
Agenda
1. Discuss the Humanity
Formulation
2. Discuss the Kingdom of Ends
Formulation and Broader
Issues
Humanity Formulation
“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.”
The Basic Problem
 The notion of treating someone as an end is
vague, and so the principle is difficult to apply.

The principle fails to give us good advice about
how to determine what people deserve.
Problems for the Principle of Humanity
Autonomy Objection
The principle assumes that
the morality of our actions
depends only on what we
can autonomously control,
but the existence of moral
luck calls this into question.
Moral luck: cases in which
the morality of an action
depends on factors outside
of our control.
Autonomy Objection
The principle assumes that we are genuinely
autonomous, but that assumption may be
false.
1) Either our choices are necessitated, or they
are not.
2) If they are necessitated, then they are out of
our control, and so we lack autonomy.
3) If they are not necessitated, then they are
random, and so we lack autonomy.
4) Therefore, we lack autonomy.
Humanity applies to all rational
beings …
But not to non-rational beings …
The Moral Standing Objection
The principle cannot explain why those who
lack rationality and autonomy are deserving of
respect.
1) If the principle of humanity is true, then animals
have no rights.
2) If animals have no rights, then it is morally
acceptable to torture them.
3) Therefore, if the principle of humanity is true, then
it is morally acceptable to torture animals.
4) It isn’t morally acceptable to torture animals!
5) Therefore, the principle of humanity is false.
Big picture
Formula of Universal Law
Objections
• “Act only according to that
maxim by which you can at
the same time will that it
should become a universal
law of nature.”
1. Rigorism
2. Vacuity (and Sneaky
Maxim Makers)
3. Covert Consequentialism
Big picture
Formula of Universal Law
Question
• “Act only according to that
maxim by which you can at
the same time will that it
should become a universal
law of nature.”
What are the rational will’s
wider purposes?
Big picture
Formula of Humanity
Question
• “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.”
How do you respect the ends
of others?
Big picture
The Kingdom of Ends
Kant’s CI
• “So act as if you, by your
own maxims, were at all
times a legislative member
in the universal realm of
ends.”
Kingdom of ends
“A systematic union of rational
beings by common objective
laws.”
Self-Legislation
We, as rational agents, legislate the
law to which we are subject.
Co-Legislation
Our maxims must be consistent with
“the idea of the will of every
rational being as a will giving
universal law.”
The Free-Rider
Problem
The Prisoner’s Dilemma
a) It is individually
rational not to
cooperate.
b) It is collectively
rational to
cooperate.
Social Contract Theory
“The imaginary device through which
equally imaginary individuals, living in
solitude … come together to form a
society, accepting obligations of some
minimal kind to one another and
immediately or very soon thereafter
binding themselves to a political
sovereign who can enforce those
obligations”
(Honderich, T., The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, 2nd eds, OUP 2005, pg. 174)
The Sovereign
Kant and Hobbes agree
that we are rationally
required to leave the
state of nature and
submit to a coercive
authority in order to
adjudicate between
conflicts of individual
interests.
For Kant, the rationale is
autonomous.
For Hobbes, the rational
is heteronomous.
Big picture
The Kingdom of Ends
Kant’s CI
• “So act as if you, by your
own maxims, were at all
times a legislative member
in the universal realm of
ends.”
Kingdom of ends
“A systematic union of rational
beings by common objective
laws.”
Self-Legislation
We, as rational agents, legislate the
law to which we are subject.
Co-Legislation
Our maxims must be consistent with
“the idea of the will of every
rational being as a will giving
universal law.”
Contractarianism
Contractualism
Equality of
Parties
Descriptive
Moral
Basis for
Cooperation
Mutual Advantage
Fairness
Role of
Agreement
Underwrite a stable system of social
interaction between actual agents
Underwrite moral
justifiability of Principles
Autonomy Discussion
The Happy Slave Question
(about Autonomy)
Is it morally permissible to
(happily) consent to a life of
slavery?
(a) How would Kant answer
this question?
(b) How would Mill answer this
question?
(c) How would Hobbes answer
this question?
(d) In your assessment, which
answer is better and why?