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Kant

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First we want to know what Kant has to say about what moral rule we ought to follow. ... 2. A good will is one that habitually wills rightly. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Kant


1
Kant
  • Are there absolute moral laws that we have to
    follow regardless of consequences?
  • First we want to know what Kant has to say about
    what moral rule we ought to follow.

2
2 Types of Commands or Imperatives
  • Hypothetical Imperatives If you desire Y, then
    you ought to do X
  • Hypothetical imperatives are conditioned on your
    actually desiring some outcome.
  • The imperative only has motivational force if you
    do desire the outcome that the action promises.

3
  • Categorical Imperatives You ought to do X
  • Morality does not depend on our having certain
    desires.
  • Categorical imperatives are commands that we
    follow regardless of our personal end or desires.

4
Fundamental Principle of Morality is a
Categorical Imperative
  • 1. Act only according to that maxim by which you
    can at the same time will that it should become a
    universal law.
  • 2. Act as though the maxim of your action were by
    your will to become a universal law of nature.
  • 3. 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.

5
Application of the C.I.
  • Application of the categorical imperative results
    in moral rules that are absolute, i.e., admit of
    no exceptions
  • Applied to the judgment of specific actions If
    action could become universal law, then it is
    morally correct.
  • Examples suicide borrow money knowing you cant
    repay it charity indolent man

6
Justification of the Categorical Imperative
  • 1. Nothing is intrinsically good but a good will
    all other goods, such as happiness, intellectual
    eminence are worthless or positively evil when
    not combined with a good will.
  • 2. A good will is one that habitually wills
    rightly.
  • 3. The rightness or wrongness of a volition
    depends wholly on its motive.

7
Implication of the C. I.
  • Does not depend on consequences.
  • To do something right requires that we do it for
    the right reason.
  • An action can have a proper outcome with out it
    being moral. (Amoral, Immoral, Moral actions)
  • Any action which is right or wrong in a given
    situation must be wrong for any rational being.

8
Primacy of Rationality in Kants Theory
  • Because people have desires and goals, other
    things have value for them we give other things
    value.
  • Human beings are valuable in and of themselves.
  • They have their own intrinsic worth i.e.,
    dignity that is above all price
  • Value of human beings stems from the fact that
    they are rational agents free agents capable of
    making their own decisions, setting goals and
    guiding their conduct by reason.
  • We cannot treat individuals as things because
    they are the source of moral goodness.
  • To treat a person as an end in themselves means
    respecting their rationality.

9
Problems with the Kantian Approach
  • Anscomb proper way to construct moral maxims.
  • Conflicts between absolute moral rules Dutch
    fisherman example.
  • Are all categorical imperatives actually
    hypothetical.
  • Mills criticism of Kantian ethics Kant himself
    is appealing to consequences in evaluating which
    maxims to accept.

10
Kant on Retributive Justice
  • Utilitarianism
  • Punishment increases the amount of suffering in
    the world.
  • Punishment may be justified if it
  • Helps prevent crime
  • Well designed punishment may help rehabilitate
    criminals
  • Utilitarian rationale is close to our current
    notions of crime and punishment
  • prison correctional facility
  • guard corrections officer
  • educational programs/counseling/work

11
  • Kantianism
  • Punishment is acceptable because it is what the
    criminal deserves.
  • Punishing prisoners as a way of preventing crime
    is using people as a means to an end.
  • Rehabilitation is a violation of the autonomy
    rights of the individual to choose what sort
    person they want to be.
  • People should be punished simply because they
    have committed a crime.
  • Punishment for crime should be proportional
    seriousness of the crime determines the penalty.

12
Justification of Punishment
  • 1. We must treat people as an end-in-themselves
  • 2. To treat someone as an end is to treat them as
    a rational being
  • 3. To treat someone as a rational being is to
    treat a person as capable of reasoning about his
    or her conduct and freely deciding what he or she
    will do.
  • 4. When we decide what to do to those who do
    wrong to us we look to the categorical imperative
    they have endorsed by their own actions.
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