A Simplified Version of Kants Ethics: Onora ONeill

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A Simplified Version of Kants Ethics Onora
ONeill

• Normative application of Kantian moral theory.
• Third Formulation of the Categorical Imperative
  Act in such a way that you always treat
  humanity, whether in your own person or in the
  person of any other, never simply as a means but
  always at the same time as an end.

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What is a maxim?

• A maxim is a principle that underlies or informs
  an act or set of actions.
• Several acts may satisfy the underlying maxim or
  principle.
• Famine Example Try to reduce the risk or
  severity of world hunger

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• Several possible actions/policies will satisfy
  the requirements of the principle
• Individual contributions/government
  aid/volunteering

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Using Others as Mere Means

• We use others as mere means if what we do
  reflects some maxim to which they could not in
  principle consent. (134)
• Deception (actual maxim must be kept secret)
• Coercion

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Treating Others as Ends in Themselves

• Avoid using others as mere means.
• Wholly rational and autonomous if such beings
  existed we would only need to avoid using them as
  mere means.

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Justice and Beneficence

• Perfect duties are those that we have in virtue
  of someones having a rights claim against us.
• Imperfect duties generate obligations, but these
  obligations are to individuals in general and not
  to any specific individual.

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Justice to the Vulnerable in Kantian Thinking

• Justice requires action that conforms (at least
  outwardly) to what could be done in a given
  situation while acting on maxims neither of
  deception nor coercion.(136)
• Further discussion of famine and justice
  pp.137-138
• The basis for beneficent action is that we
  cannot without it, treat others of limited
  rationality and autonomy as ends in
  themselves.(138)

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Justice to the Vulnerable (cont.)

• Extreme deprivation curtails ones ability to
  engage in autonomous action.
• Our beneficence is not intended to merely make
  others happy, though an increase in autonomy may
  make others happier.
• When famines were not only far away, but nothing
  could be done to relieve them, beneficence or
  charity may well have begunand stayedat home.
  In a global village, the moral significance of
  distance has shrunk, and we may be able to affect
  the capacities for autonomous action of those who
  are far away.(139)