KANT : The Ethics of Duty and Respect

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KANT The Ethics of Duty and Respect

• 1724 1804

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An example

• You are invited to a party with someone who
  isnt very popular.
• Reluctantly you accept.
• Two days later another invite arrives for a
  party on the same night from someone you like a
  lot more.

WHAT DO YOU DO ???
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Timeline

• Jesus Kant (C18th) Î
  Now

Enlightenment______
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The Enlightenment

• The Age of Reason
• Newtons Copernican revolution
• Rousseaus Social Contract
• Kant wanted to find a rational basis for the
  metaphysics of morals (meta beyond)
• Kant called this practical reason

4.1
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DAVID HUME (1711-1776) wrote

• Reason is the slave of the passions.

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Immanuel Kant wrote, disagreeing with Hume

• Suppose a man does an action for the sake of
  duty alone, for the first time his action has
  genuine moral worth a moral worth beyond all
  comparison the highest he does good not from
  inclination, but from duty.
• Groundwork of
  the Metaphysics of Morals

4.2
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Schindlers List

• Oscar Schindler was moved by the sight of the
  girl in the red dress wandering through scenes of
  murder as Krakow ghetto is cleansed. He
  resolves to save Jews by relocating his factory
  (extract from the book available on this site PI
  Kant extract 1)
• ).

4.4
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But Kant..

• Kant distrusted emotions as being
• Passive
• Unreliable
• Phenomenal (from the world of experience)
• Was Kant right? Or was Hume right?

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A Kantian worldview (see next slide too!)

• Phenomenal -gt pure reason -gt observation -gt
  inductive conclusion Jack is a bachelor
• Noumenal -gt practical reason -gt abstraction -gt
  deductive conclusion all bachelors are
  unmarried
• NB This Kantian worldview is fundamentally
  dualistic. Kant argued that morality is derived
  from practical reason, a priori.

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Kants view of Human Nature
Kants understanding of human nature is best
appreciated within the context of
Animals Human
Beings God / Angels
Desires Inclinations
Reason
Desires Reason
Animals follow their desires and inclinations
only. They have no reason, so behave according
to the empirical laws of cause and effect,
led by their appetite and instincts.
God and angels areperfectly rational beings,
without appetites and desires to lead them
astray from following reason and objective
moral laws.
Human nature experiences the tension of
desires and inclinations (their animal self)
versus the voice of reason (their God-like
self)
4.3
Phenomenal and Noumenal Realm
Phenomenal Realm
Noumenal Realm
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The meaning of a priori

• Kantian ethics is a priori synthetic from
  reason, but provable true or false.
• A priori means derived from reason not
  observation literally before.
• Synthetic means from circumstances in the world
  as we find it , so provable true or false.

4.5
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Analytic and synthetic statements

• Analytic true by definition all bachelors are
  unmarried.
• Synthetic true empirically ie can be true or
  false Fred is a bachelor.
• Question all swans are white analytic or
  synthetic?

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The good will the motive is crucial

• It is impossible to conceive anything in the
  world, or even out of it, which can be called
  good except the good will.
• 
  
  Immanuel Kant

4.6
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The good will - summary

• Is intrinsically good (in itself).
• Desires, consequences, feelings cannot be good in
  themselves.
• Only an action coming from the motive of duty
  alone can be moral.
• Shines forth like a precious jewel.
• Examples?

4.5
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Adolf Eichmann trial 1967
4.8
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Two concepts of duty

• Duty following orders (Adolf Eichmann)
• Duty imposing obligation on ones own will and
  feelings (Kant)

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Film Clip The Queen

• There is a tension in this scene (the last scene
  of the film) as the Queen discusses the
  difficulties of being a monarch.
• What is the tension?

4.8
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(No Transcript)
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The Categorical Imperative

• Categorical unconditional commands binding on
  everyone at all times, based on reason, not
  feelings.
• Categorical imperative you ought to tell the
  truth (Kant called these maxims, or general
  rules).
• Hypothetical imperative you ought to tell the
  truth if no-ones hurt by it (a hypothesis is an
  if statement eg if it suits you, lie, so
  rightness depends on your goals or feelings).

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Categorical or hypothetical?
Self Test

• Be nice to your granny so she will leave you
  money in her will.
• Use artificial contraception to avoid unwanted
  pregnancies.
• Tell the truth so people will trust you.
• NB Hypotheticals dont always have
  an if!!!

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Kants categorical imperative

• Is derived from practical reason, using a priori
  reasoning.
• Belongs to the noumenal world (with ideas of
  cause and effect, time and God for example.
• Is the result of autonomous (free) human beings
  transcending their animal desires.
• Provides universal moral principles, and so is
  deontological (creates duties and rules)

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First formulation The formula of law

• Universalize your actions into a universal law
• What is fair for one is fair for all
• N.B. This principle is present in all world
  faiths and many philosophies.
• Always act in such a way that the maxim of your
  action can be willed as a universal law for all
  humanity
• Consistency
• Fairness
• Moral imagination and empathy

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Example

• You modify your car, fit a loud exhaust pipe and
  drive it too fast down your local High Street.

What would Kant say???
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Wrong action

• An action is wrong if its a contradiction in
  nature or will.
• Example A man reduced to despair by a series of
  misfortunes feels wearied of life, and asks if it
  wouldnt be contrary to duty to take his own
  life. We see at once that a system of nature in
  which it should be a universal law to destroy
  life would contradict itself that maxim cant
  exist as a universal law of nature.
  Kant

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Second Formulation The formula of humanity

• Respect all human beings as having absolute
  dignity
• Always treat human beings as an end in
  themselves, never simply as a means to an end.
• Equality of status
• Human rights
• Dignity of the individual

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Example simulate this!

• You go into a shop to buy some chocolate.
  Treat the shopkeeper as a. just a means and then,
  b. more than just a means to buy sweets.
• What does it mean for a teacher to respect
  students?
• Or for you to respect me?

How would Kant behave towards the shopkeeper?
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Third Formulation The formula of autonomy

• Authority for me to decide, considering the
  interests of all, on the basis of a shared
  humanity, and my own autonomy.
• So act as if you were a law-maker in a kingdom
  of ends
• There is such a thing as society
• We have mutual obligations as well as rights
• We need to abstract issues of gender, personal
  taste etc and legislate from an original
  position under a veil of ignorance
  
• 
  (John Rawls 1971 A Theory of Justice)

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The summum bonum

• Kant rejects happiness as a primary goal.
• Pure practical reason requires not that we
  renounce the claims of happiness it requires
  only that we take no account of them whenever
  duty is in question.
• Summum bonum is a mixture of virtue and happiness
  where rational beings are worthy of happiness,
  ie heaven!

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The three postulates - Kant

• Autonomy
• Immortality
• God
• Does Kant need God?
• Sum up the summum bonum to Kant.

The power of a priori reason
The reward for a dutiful life
The source of the objective law
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Conclusion summary of Kant

• Kant believed that the only intrinsic (ie good in
  itself)
• good is the good will operating according to a
  sense of
• duty in line with the categorical (ie
  unconditional)
• imperative. This is an innate, a priori,
  objective,
• reasonable principle.
• Internal, not external
• Comes from reason, not Pope, parents, law-makers
• A priori, not dependent on feelings
  circumstances/ consequences
• Universal and absolute
• N.B. Not made relative to some idea of happiness
  or flourishing, but on a reasonable abstraction
  stemming from the autonomous individual, who is
  completely equal to every other person.

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Evaluation

• Examine the list of benefits and problems (see
  below) produce two lists, choose the benefit and
  problem of Kantian ethics you think is the most
  persuasive/powerful.

Prepare for a debate justifying your choice
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Weakness 1 rigidity

• The strange case of the enquiring murderer.
• To be honest in all deliberations is a sacred
  and absolute command of reason....whoever tells a
  lie is responsible for the consequences. Kant
• 
  
  
• So dont lie even to save your friend whos
  hiding in the house from a crazy knifeman.
• Possible to be a moral fanatic like Eichmann.

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Weakness 2 harshness - retribution

• Kant believed capital punishment was a form of
  consistent universalisability.
• An evil deed draws punishment on itself.
  Kant
  
  
• If someone is horrible to you, be horrible back.
• Denial of moral emotions ? inhuman.

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Weakness 3 speceism

• Our rationality places us above the animals.
• As far as animals are concerned, we have no
  direct duties. Animals are there merely as a
  means to an end. That end is man.
• 
  
  Kant

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Weakness 4 conflicting duties

• Absolute theories of ethics like Kants have a
  problem when two oughts conflict.
• Dont lie and dont kill. Kant cant
  distinguish between them.
• W.D. Ross gives us a way out by arguing for a
  hierarchy of prima facie duties, which are
  relative. So you can be a deontological
  relativist!

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Strength 1 clarity

• Kant gives us clear rules to follow.
• Everyone who is ideally rational will legislate
  the same moral principles.
• 
  Louis Pojman
• Hypothetical imperatives are possible because
  we have desires, categorical imperatives are
  possible because we have reason.
• 
  James Rachels

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Strength 2 consistency

• We dont exempt ourselves or others.
• Everyone is treated as an autonomous law-maker.
• A person cant regard himself as special from a
  moral point of view.
• 
  James Rachels

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Strength 3 dignity/equality

• The value of human beings is absolute.
• We cant treat people just as means to an end.
• We have unconditional worth and so must treat
  all value-givers as valuable in themselves.
• 
  Louis Pojman
• Humans have intrinsic worth and dignity, because
  they are rational agents that is, free.
• 
  James Rachels

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What have we left out?

• Compare this list with your textbook or John
  Waters Socratic Ideas powerpoint, or flick
  through Lawrence Hinmans by clicking on this
  link. http//ethics.sandiego.edu/theories/Kan
  t/index.asp
• Do they all agree on the major strengths and
  weaknesses of Kant?

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Analyse and Evaluate! Try without help

• Moral autonomy freedom and dignity
• Equality and impartiality applies to all
• Simplicity deontological rules easy to apply
• BUT.
• Moral fanatics like Eichmann (cruel)
• Cant resolve conflicting duties
• Speciest, unlike Utilitarians, no concern for
  suffering animals

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Remains of the Day E.M.Forster
Is duty dehumanising (because it denies us our
emotions?)
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Case Studies (pre-prepare or use newspapers)

• On a number of cards you could consider a number
  of situations which you can assess from a Kantian
  perspective (ie say what Kant might or might not
  recommend someone to do, and for what reasons).
• Discussor maybe prepare a grid of a few
  examples.

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