Kant's absolutist ethics are deontological, meaning the morality of an act depends on the act itself rather than its consequences. According to Kant, there are both natural laws that specify what must occur and moral laws that specify what ought to occur. Rational creatures can discover the moral law through reason alone and have free will to choose whether to obey it. The Categorical Imperative encapsulates how a fully rational being would act and tells us how we ought to act - always in accordance with principles that could become universal, treating people as ends in themselves rather than means, and promoting a "kingdom of ends" where all respect each other. Though impossible to prove we have a fully good will, we have free will
Kant's absolutist ethics are deontological, meaning the morality of an act depends on the act itself rather than its consequences. According to Kant, there are both natural laws that specify what must occur and moral laws that specify what ought to occur. Rational creatures can discover the moral law through reason alone and have free will to choose whether to obey it. The Categorical Imperative encapsulates how a fully rational being would act and tells us how we ought to act - always in accordance with principles that could become universal, treating people as ends in themselves rather than means, and promoting a "kingdom of ends" where all respect each other. Though impossible to prove we have a fully good will, we have free will
Kant's absolutist ethics are deontological, meaning the morality of an act depends on the act itself rather than its consequences. According to Kant, there are both natural laws that specify what must occur and moral laws that specify what ought to occur. Rational creatures can discover the moral law through reason alone and have free will to choose whether to obey it. The Categorical Imperative encapsulates how a fully rational being would act and tells us how we ought to act - always in accordance with principles that could become universal, treating people as ends in themselves rather than means, and promoting a "kingdom of ends" where all respect each other. Though impossible to prove we have a fully good will, we have free will
Kant's absolutist ethics are deontological, meaning the morality of an act depends on the act itself rather than its consequences. According to Kant, there are both natural laws that specify what must occur and moral laws that specify what ought to occur. Rational creatures can discover the moral law through reason alone and have free will to choose whether to obey it. The Categorical Imperative encapsulates how a fully rational being would act and tells us how we ought to act - always in accordance with principles that could become universal, treating people as ends in themselves rather than means, and promoting a "kingdom of ends" where all respect each other. Though impossible to prove we have a fully good will, we have free will
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Intuitionism
The Ethics of Kant (1724-1804)
An Absolutist ethics. Kant did not believe there was room for conflict between the universal moral principles of his ethics. Deontological. The morality (rightness / wrongness) of an act is based in the act itself, and is unrelated to the consequences. The Moral Law Natural Law and Moral Law Built into the structure of reality, there are:
Natural laws (the laws of physics, chemistry) that specify what must occur. Moral laws that specify what ought to occur. The Moral Law Rational Creatures Rational creatures (ourselves, angels and intelligent extraterrestrials, if they exist) may differ in their inclinations (what they desire, want, need for happiness), but all have in common: Their rationality, their ability through reason alone to discover the moral law. The free will to choose or not to choose to try to obey the moral law. The Moral Law The Moral Law and Rational Creatures This ability to discover the moral law, and to freely choose to try to obey it, gives dignity and infinite worth to all rational creatures. The greatest achievement of the universe is to provide a setting for rational creatures to freely choose to try to obey the moral law.
The Moral Law The Holiness of Obeying the Moral Law For a rational creature to try to obey the moral law is a event that has an intrinsic holiness within reality. Kant: it sparkle[s] like a jewel with its own light, as something that had full worth in itself. Duty and The Good Will Being Moral What is necessary for a rational creature to be moral? 1. We must try to obey the moral law. Whether we succeed in performing a given act is often beyond our control. What is important is that we try. 2. But not only must we try to do the right act, but we must try it for the right reason or motive.
Duty and The Good Will The Right Reason Example: if you do not cheat on an exam because you are afraid you will get caught, you have not acted morally. You did the right act (did not cheat) But you did not act for the right reason or motive.
Duty and The Good Will The Right Reason: Duty The only morally right reason or motive is to act out of duty: To do what is right because it is right. To obey the moral law because it is the universal moral law built into reality telling us what we ought to do, even if every inclination in our being is pulling us in a different direction. To act from the motive of duty is to have a Good Will. Duty and The Good Will The Right Reason: Duty
At times our acts are not morally bad; they are morally neither positive or negative. For our acts to have moral worth, we must act with a good will, that is, from a motive of duty, doing what is right because it is right, because it is the moral law and what we ought to do.
to act out of a want or desire, is to act out of your inclinations Duty and The Good Will The Value of Good Will The Good Will is unconditionally good in itself.
If two soldiers set out on a risky mission with Good Will to save some comrades, and one is cut down and dies immediately, and the other succeeds and gets a Medal of Honor, what counts is the Good Will of the two soldiers, and both acts shine as jewels in the unseen fabric of reality. The Categorical Imperative How Ought We Act? Duties or obligations use a language of commands (The Ten Commandments) or imperatives. Kant distinguished between two types of commands or imperatives: 1. Hypothetical Imperatives or Mean-Ends imperatives. Have the form If you want A, then do B. 2. Categorical Imperatives or Unconditional / Unqualified Imperatives Have the form Do B! No ifs, ands or buts about it. Are the form of imperatives for the moral law: they are intuitive, immediate, absolute commands that all rational creatures can understand through their reason. This is what you do whether you like it or not. The Categorical Imperative How Ought We Act? All morality can be rationally derived from a single categorical / unconditional / unqualified command: The Categorical Imperative
The Categorical Imperative encapsulates the way a fully rational creature would act. As imperfectly rational creatures, the Categorical Imperative tells us how we ought to act. The Categorical Imperative 1. The Golden Rule Formulation The first formulation of the Categorical Imperative: (the Golden Rule Formulation or Principle of Universalization):
Always act according to principles that you would be willing to become universal laws The Categorical Imperative 1. The Golden Rule Formulation Not to act in this way is irrational and inconsistent. Example: You need money, and choose to act under the principle: I will borrow money and say I will repay it without any intention of doing so. But you would not want this to become a universal way people acted, for then no one would lend money, and your need for money could never be satisfied through a loan. The way a fully rational creature would act, and therefore what we as imperfectly rational creatures ought to do, is to keep promises, not lie and be deceitful to others. The Categorical Imperative 1. The Golden Rule Formulation To act morally is to recognize the same rules must apply to you as apply to everyone else. Implies an underlying respect for others, who as rational creatures: Are autonomous beings, capable of legislating universal laws by following this Golden Rule formation of the Categorical Imperative. Are capable of acting out of duty, with a Good Will, and who hence have dignity and infinite worth. The Categorical Imperative 2. Principle of Humanity The second formulation of the Categorical Imperative (the Principle of Humanity or the Formulation of Respect): Always act so to treat people, whether yourself or others, as an end, and never as a means only The Categorical Imperative 2. Principle of Humanity Rational creatures have infinite worth, and must be treated as priceless ends in themselves. It is immoral to use people or treat them as tools only. They must never be treated as mere instruments to serve the ends of ourselves or others The Categorical Imperative 2. Principle of Humanity Example: You need money, and choose to act under the principle: I will borrow money and say I will repay it without any intention of doing so. To do so, would be for us to: treat the person loaning us money as a mere means for our need, by making our deceitful promise to them fail to respect that the person loaning us money is a rational being, by depriving them of the information they need to make a rational decision to loan us money. The Categorical Imperative 3. Kingdom of Ends Formulation The third formulation of the Categorical Imperative (The Kingdom of Ends formulation): Always act so to promote a kingdom of ends, in which every rational being respects each other as ends in themselves The Categorical Imperative 3. Kingdom of Ends Formulation This is a social formulation of the categorical imperative.
It is also idealistic: our duty is to act so as to move the world towards a kingdom of ends, even though we realistically know such a kingdom can never be achieved in this life. Is It Possible to Have a Good Will? Is it humanly possible to live by the Categorical Imperative, to obey the moral law, motivated by duty, by the desire to do right for the sake of doing right? Is it, in other words, humanly possible to have a Good Will? Is It Possible to Have a Good Will? Kant: it is impossible to recognize or prove. For any action, it will always be possible to find an explanation involving our inclinations (our desires, wants, needs). The soldiers who risk a mission to save their comrades may be motivated by anger, or fear of a commanding officer, rather than duty. We may not even know ourselves well enough to be sure of our own motivations. Is It Possible to Have a Good Will? Nonetheless, as rational beings with free will, we can act out of duty (= have a Good Will) even when all our inclinations are crying out to do otherwise. Free will gives us the freedom to act despite our inclinations. This ability is what gives rational creatures dignity and infinite worth in the creation.