Kants Deontology

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Kants Deontology

• Duty for Dutys Sake

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England
Bentham (1748-1832)
Mill (1806-1873)
1700
1900
Mozart (1756-1791)
Kant (1724-1804)
Germany
America For comparison
Jefferson (1743-1826)
Lincoln (1809-1865)
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Immanuel Kant

• Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
• Major work
• The Critique of Pure Reason
• Ethical works
• The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
• The Critique of Practical Reason
• The Metaphysics of Morals
• Anthropology from a Practical Point of View
• Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason

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Kants Philosophy

• Kants Critique of Pure Reason caused a
  Copernican Revolution in philosophy, for those
  who followed Kant, in taking Aristotles
  Categories
• and arguing that those categories divide up our
  minds rather than the external world.

• Substance
• Quality
• Quantity
• Relation
• Place

• Time
• Position
• Possession
• Action
• Being acted on

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Kants Philosophy

• Kants Critical philosophy results in a
  Metaphysical and Epistemological view called
  Transcendental Idealism
• Transcendental because the view seeks to
  transcend the limits of sense experience by
  demonstrating modes of being and entities that
  must exist as necessary conditions for the
  possibility of experience
• Idealism because the objects of our knowledge can
  only then be ideas, rather than ideas and
  physical objects, forces, persons (and other
  ordinary things we ordinarily believe we
  experience)

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Kants Philosophy

• Two things fill the mind with ever new and
  increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and
  more steadily we reflect upon them the starry
  heavens above me and the moral law within me.
• -Kant, Critique of Practical Reason

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Kants Moral Philosophy

• Kant tries to show that morality is based in
  rationality
• recall that egoism, for instance, has no trouble
  explaining why you ought to do something all
  morality is in your interest!
• while maintaining that not all morality is in
  your interest, which he thinks it plainly is not
  (duties conflict with interest often)

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Kants Moral Philosophy

• How does Kant show morality is based in
  rationality?
• He is going to provide a test of our actions such
  that when they are morally wrong the actions
  result in
• a contradictory, impossible, or incoherent state
  of affairs, or,
• in us being inconsistentcontradicting ourselves.
• This isnt as good as making our obligations
  identical to our desires (egoism), but since
  inconsistency is embarrassing to most people, it
  provides motivation of a sort.

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Explaining Kants Deontology

• Kant approaches ethics much as Aristotle, by
  identifying things we already think are good
  (Kant adds right or obligatory), and trying to
  give an account that explains why they are so,
  and that will settle dispute about borderline
  cases (is it ever right to break a promise? Do we
  have duties to ourselves? Etc.)
• We will consider these in the order Kant did
• The Good Will
• The Notion of Duty
• Imperatives
• The Categorical Imperative (the Moral Law)
• Formulation 1 Ends in Themselves
• Formulation 2 Universal Law (we wont cover)
• Formulation 3 Autonomy (we wont cover)
• Formulation 4 Kingdom of Ends (we wont cover)

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The Good Will

• Kant says that only one thing is good without
  qualification
• Virtues, Courage, for instance?
• No, courage is not good if you are courageous in
  robbing the bank.
• Intelligence?
• No, intelligence makes criminals more dangerous,
  not less.
• Health?
• No, health was certainly bad in Hitler.
• Good Will?
• Yes, a good will, in the sense of a person
  acting from respect for the moral law, is good
  unconditionally.

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The Good Will

• No matter what situation you are in, acting out
  of a sense of duty is good regardless of the
  consequences, or, it is good unconditionally.
• In human beings, respect for the moral law means
  being restrained by its requirements.
• Actions have moral worth only when we act for the
  sake of duty and against contrary inclination.
• It follows that divine beings (God, gods, angels,
  etc), do not act morally since they have no
  desires that run contrary to their duties.

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The Notion of Duty

• Suppose you send your mother flowers on Mothers
  Day because you love her and want to please her
  you also realize, as it happens, you have a duty
  to honor your mother. Does your action have moral
  worth?
• No
• For an action to have moral worth is must be
• done out of respect for the moral law, or done
  from a sense of duty
• Does this mean sending your mother flowers on
  Mothers Day because you love her is immoral?
  Non-moral?
• Immoral, no
• Non-moral, yes
• It is admirable, and good, but not morally good
  in a strict sense.
• It accords with duty,
• But is not done from duty

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The Notion of Duty

• Suppose you send your mother flowers on Mothers
  Day because you love her and want to please her,
  but mainly because you have a duty to honor your
  mother. Does your action have moral worth?
• Yes
• Does your mother prefer this to you acting mainly
  from love?
• No, probably not
• Does that pose a problem for Kants view?
• Only if you think you should be acting morally at
  every opportunity maximizing your moral
  actions. Kant does not think you have any such
  duty.

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Imperatives

• Imperatives are commands
• Go to the store
• Shut the door
• Aside from these bossy imperatives, Kant
  distinguishes 2 others
• hypothetical imperatives
• categorical imperatives

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Imperatives

• Hypothetical Imperatives
• How we give practical advice
• Have a conditional, If, then, structure
• If you want a pop, then go upstairs and look in
  the fridge
• Such imperatives are grounded in our goals,
  purposes, or interests
• Categorical Imperative
• How we give moral advice (or how morality
  commands us)
• Have an unconditional, Do X, structure
• For Kant there is only ONE categorical imperative
  (though it has 4 formulations)
• This imperative is grounded in our nature as
  rational beings, not in our goals, purposes, or
  interests

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The Categorical Imperative

• The Moral Law states
• act only on that maxim whereby you can at the
  same time will that it should be a universal law
• How do we understand this injunction?
• In four steps

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Step 1
1

• act only on that maxim whereby you can at the
  same time will that it should be a universal law
• Identify an act you want to test to see if it is
  morally permissible.
• Kants example is
• Promising to pay back money while in such a
  financial pinch that you know you cant pay it
  back.

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Step 2
1

• act only on that maxim whereby you can at the
  same time will that it should be a universal law
• Universalize your act (restate it as a law)
• Everyone in a financial pinch should promise to
  pay back money knowing they cannot pay it back.

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Step 3
3
1

• act only on that maxim whereby you can at the
  same time will that it should be a universal law
• Determine whether your universalized maxim could
  be a universal law
• If everyone in financial pinches took money
  falsely promising to pay it back, what would
  happen? Soon promises would be meaningless,
  making the action impossible.

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Step 3 (continued)
3
1

• act only on that maxim whereby you can at the
  same time will that it should be a universal law
• Determine whether your universalized maxim could
  be a universal law
• If your action results in an inconceivable
  situation (people loan money on promises they
  know are no good), then you have a perfect duty
  to refrain from the action.

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Step 4
3
1

• act only on that maxim whereby you can at the
  same time will that it should be a universal law
• Supposing your action passes test 3 (it could be
  a universal law), ask whether you can will that
  it be a universal law
• What would happen if everyone, say, refused to
  help others in trouble? We could, conceivably,
  act that way, so there is no perfect duty not to
  act that way.

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2
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Step 4 (continued)
3
1

• act only on that maxim whereby you can at the
  same time will that it should be a universal law
• Supposing your action passes test 3 (it could be
  a universal law) ask whether you can will that it
  be a universal law
• Kant says, however, that while we could act that
  way, we could not will to act that way, because
  that would mean no one would help us if we were
  in trouble. We have, then, an imperfect duty not
  to refuse to help those in trouble.

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4
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Accommodating Moral Data

• Kant constructed his imperative to explain moral
  duties as he learned them in his day
• Duties Toward Oneself
• Perfect Self-Preservation (no suicide)
• Imperfect Self-Cultivation (no squandering
  talents)
• Duties Toward Others
• Perfect Strict Obligation (no promise-breakingst
  ep 3)
• Imperfect Beneficence (no selfishnessstep 4)

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Formulation 1 Humanity Formula

• Kant provides this formulation of the categorical
  imperative to help readers connect the law with
  their feelings
• Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your
  own person or that of another, always as an end
  and never as a means only
• How do we treat others means?
• When we pay for our groceries, we are using the
  cashier as a means

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Formulation 1 Humanity Formula

• How do we treat others as ends and not merely or
  only as means?
• When we finish paying for our groceries, we say
• Thanks!
• Kant says it this way
• he who is thinking of making a lying promise to
  others will see at once that he would be using
  another man merely as a means, . For he whom I
  propose by such a promise to use for my own
  purposes cannot possibly assent to my mode of
  acting towards him,
• It is this formulation that resulted in a common
  phrase used in moral reasoning often today
• Respect for Persons

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Criticisms of Kant

• Read Brannigan, pp.114-116

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References

• This presentation drew heavily on the work of
  Robert Johnson at the University of
  Missouri-Columbia
• http//plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-moral/
• Curtis Brown at Trinity University in San
  Antonio, Texas
• http//www.trinity.edu/cbrown/intro/kant_ethics.ht
  ml
• and a nice summary from Robert Cavalier at
  Carnegie Mellon
• http//caae.phil.cmu.edu/Cavalier/80130/part1/sect
  4/Kant.html
• Images of Kant found at
• http//www.kant.uni-mainz.de/e_icono.html