Immanuel Kant Ii

IMMANUEL KANT
THE CATEGORAL IMPERATIVE
Duty and the moral ought emerged as a dominant theme in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries in the western philosophy. This period of Western intellectual history,
known as the Enlightenment, was equaled only by the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E., which
witnessed the golden age of ancient Greek philosophy as well as the birth of Confucianism and
Moism in China and Buddhism in India.
The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment gave rise to some of the most influential philosophy in Western history,
including the deontology of Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) and the rights ethics of John Locke
(1632 – 1704) and Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826).
The rise of science and technology during this period reinforced the ancient Greek belief in the
fundamental rational nature of humans and the potential of reason to solve all our problems.
The Ought Quality of Morality

In his early writings, Kant acknowledged the role of a natural moral sense or feeling of concern
for others.
Kant believed that most people already knew right from wrong.
Kant believed that the problem most people have is not in knowing what is morally right but in
doing it.
Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics

Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good with
qualification, except a Good Will.
To be beneficent when we can is a duty; and besides this, there are many minds so
sympathetically constituted that, without any other motive of vanity or self-interest, they find a
pleasure in spreading joy around them, and can take delight in the satisfaction of others so far as
it is their own work.
Kant’s Categorical Imperative
Kant argued that reason requires not only that moral duties be universal but also that they be
absolutely binding. There can be no exceptions.
“Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should
become a universal law”.
Kant believed that all rational beings would agree with this formulation of the categorical
imperative, even though there may be disagreement about the particular details of moral
behavior.
Reason as the Foundation of Morality

According to Kant, Reason provides the foundation of morality, morality would not exist in the
world without rationality.
Whereas rational beings have free will, everything else in nature operates according to physical
laws.
“So far as animals are concerned we have no direct duties. Animals are not self-
conscious and are there merely as a means to an end. That end is man”.
Cruelty to nonhuman animals is not considered wrong because animals don’t have any rights that
we as rational beings are bound to respect.
Instead, cruelty to nonhuman animals is wrong because it often spills over into an attitude of
meanness and hardness in our dealings with other humans.
To lie to other rational beings is to offer them a profound insult regarding their ability to make
decisions about their own life or their ability to handle the truth.
Deontology, with its emphasis on the intrinsic worth of rational beings, has been regarded as an
important corrective to strict utilitarian theory where an individual may be sacrificed for the
greater good of the community.
“So far as animals are concerned we have no direct duties. Animals are not self-
conscious and are there merely as a means to an end. That end is man”.
Cruelty to nonhuman animals is not considered wrong because animals don’t have any rights that
we as rational beings are bound to respect.
Instead, cruelty to nonhuman animals is wrong because it often spills over into an attitude of
meanness and hardness in our dealings with other humans.
Learning
Kant’s categorical imperative states that we ought to do something regardless of the
consequences. Unlike hypothetical imperative, which tell us we ought to do something if we
desire to achieve a certain result, such as telling a lie to save a life.
Example of categorical imperative:
We should never lie, even in a situation where lying might have beneficial consequences, such as
lying to a murderer in order to save someone’s life.

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Immanuel Kant Ii

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IMMANUEL KANT

THE CATEGORAL IMPERATIVE

The Ought Quality of Morality

Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics

Reason as the Foundation of Morality

Example of categorical imperative:

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