LOA’s

Question 1

Does Kantian Ethics provide a helpful method of moral-decision making

Answer 1

While Kantian ethics may provide a helpful theoretical framework for moral decision-making, its practical unhelpfulness outweighs its strengths. Ethics must consider emotion, relationships, and consequences – areas where Kant’s theory is too limited.

Question 2

Can judgements about something being good, bad, right or wrong be based on the extent to which duty is best served?

Answer 2

Judgements about what is good, bad, right or wrong cannot be based solely on the extent to which duty is served. While duty remains vital, it must be considered alongside emotion and consequences to fully capture moral reality.

Question 3

Is Kantian ethics too abstract to be applicable to practical moral decision making?

Answer 3

Kantian ethics aspires to universal moral certainty by rooting ethics in reason and duty, rejecting emotion and consequence as unreliable guides. While this brings admirable clarity and consistency, it also makes the theory abstract, rigid, and detached from real-life moral complexity.

Its inability to resolve clashing duties, and its rejection of emotional and consequential moral reasoning, mean that it often fails to guide action in the very situations that demand moral clarity.

Therefore, despite its intellectual elegance, Kantian ethics is too abstract to be fully applicable to practical moral decision making. A more holistic approach—one that includes emotion, virtue, and consequence—may offer a more workable moral framework.

Question 4

Is Kantian ethics so Relient on reason that it unduly rejects the importance of other factors, such as sympathy, empathy and love in moral decision making

Answer 4

it unduly dismisses the importance of sympathy, empathy, and love in moral life. Emotional capacities are not irrational whims but can be rationally cultivated and morally reliable, as virtue ethics demonstrates.

Moreover, emotions often illuminate moral truths that pure reason overlooks. While Kantian ethics remains a foundational contribution to moral philosophy, its overreliance on reason ultimately limits its ability to account for the full depth of moral experience.

A more complete ethical framework must acknowledge the moral value of both reason and emotion, rather than erecting a false dichotomy between them.

Question 5

Can one truly universalise actions without consideration of hypothetical outcomes

Answer 5

While Kant’s attempt to universalise morality independently of consequences has intellectual clarity and rigour, it fails in practice—true moral reasoning must consider hypothetical outcomes to be workable and humane.