Kantian Ethics Flashcards
Objective moral law
- objective moral law is independent of all individual opinion or preference, it demands all obey it in its own right, not because it promotes individual happiness or helps achieve personal desires
- tells us what we ought to do, regardless of consequences
- humans perceive the moral law through their rational capacity
Duty and good will
- if i donate to charity because i can help and know i must, then my purity of motive is good. Sending the money is the right thing to do, but doing it for a selfish reason means I’m not virtuous, good is still done but i get no credit
- other motives which have some kind of inclination (family, loyalty, guilt), have no moral worth for Kant
Kant established some specific duties to ourselves and others:
- to strive for self-perfection and well-being of others
- to pursue the greater good, not ones own happiness
- the innate right of freedom
- the duty to not destroy ourselves, commit suicide
- the duty to not destroy or limit others
- the duty to not make false promises
- to avoid drunkenness, as it compromises our freedom to act reasonably
- the right to private property and ownership
The hypothetical imperative
- it commands behaviour for an end
- a moral obligation that applies only if one desires the implied goal. Kant says this is wrong, we should look to the moral law which binds us unconditionally
- for example, if you want to do the loving thing, you must do x, if you want to create the greatest happiness, you should do y
The categorical imperative
- an unconditional moral obligation that is always binding irrespective of a person inclination or purpose
- for Kant, moral knowledge is categorical, if truth telling is morally right, then you should always do it, even if it might hurt someones feelings
Kant’s three formulas
- Kant offered three principles or formulas in the categorical imperative
The formula of the universal law of nature (universalisability) - our action must be something that we could always do and anyone else could always do e.g. abortion is not universalisable as if everyone did it we would have no babies being born
The formula of the end in itself - we cannot treat people without regard for their own future as humans are rational agents capable of free will so they cannot be used for some other end e.g. human traffickers who make profit from slavery, these actions have no regard for intrinsic quality of the human beings involved
The formula of the kingdom of ends - an imagined future in which all people act in accordance to the moral law, the categorical imperative
Synthetic and analytic propositions
Analytic propositions - a judgement where the predicate belongs to the subject e.g. “All bachelors (subject) are unmarried (predicate)”, we can know that this statement is true by using knowledge and don’t have to check if it is
Synthetic propositions - a proposition in which the predicate is outside the subject, and therefore must be made certain with reference to something other than the meanings of terms e.g. “The table (subject) in the kitchen is round (predicate)”, to test if this is true we need additional information, such as looking at the particular table because tables are not universally round
The three postulates
Freedom - freedom is at the core of Kant’s ethics, it means human beings are free and self-directing. Freedom means freedom to choose the moral law over our instincts or desire, moral choices are only possible if people are free to make them
Immortality - to reach the highest good, a perfect world is not easy. In our present world good people doing their duty may not find ultimate happiness and might meet an unhappy end, so we must postulate immortality of the soul to allow for the correct happiness to be ensured beyond this life
God - Kant sought to advance an ethical theory which didn’t begin with God. However, some elements seem to imply God, such as the idea that humans are created rational creatures, and sometimes doing the right thing doesn’t lead to the greatest happiness in this world. His belief in immortality and heavenly situation would ensure that ultimately
happinesses are distributed appropriately in accordance with the moral acts people have undetaken
Strengths of Kantian ethics
- it is universal so everyone is treated equally
- human life is given particular value
- promotes good will which is beneficial for society
- no reference to the future or consequences, which cannot be known
Weaknesses of Kantian ethics
- does not seem to account for complexities of life, universalisability cannot work as no two situations are the same
- does not account for any particular duty we may have for certain people (family)
- does not account for when to absolutes clash
- some would argue human life has to be sacrificed to stop other or more being killed
