Download Was Kant right?

KANT : The Ethics of Duty and Respect
1724 – 1804
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An example :
You are invited to a party with someone who
isn’t 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
Newton’s Copernican revolution
Rousseau’s Social Contract
Kant wanted to find a rational basis for the
metaphysics of morals (meta = beyond)
• Kant called this “practical reason”
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4.1
DAVID HUME (1711-1776) wrote:
“ Reason is the slave of the
passions.”
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4.2
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
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4.2
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)
).
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4.4
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 -> pure reason -> observation ->
inductive conclusion = Jack is a bachelor
Noumenal -> practical reason -> abstraction ->
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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Kant’s view of Human Nature
Kant’s understanding of human nature is best appreciated
within the context of:
Animals
Desires
Inclinations
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.
Human Beings
God / Angels
Reason
Desires & Reason
Human nature experiences
the tension of desires
and inclinations
(their animal self)
versus the voice of
reason
(their God-like self)
God and angels are
perfectly rational beings,
without appetites and desires
to lead them astray from
following reason and
objective moral laws.
4.3
Phenomenal Realm
Phenomenal
and Noumenal Realm
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Noumenal Realm
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”.
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4.5
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?
4.6
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
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4.6
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?
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4.5
Adolf Eichmann trial 1967
Argued he tried to abide by
Kant’s categorical imperative
“I had to obey rules of war and my flag” Last words
Argued he was just
following orders,
so no choice
Argued absolute
authority of Fuhrer
was overriding principle
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4.8
Two concepts of duty
Duty = following orders (Adolf Eichmann)
Duty = imposing obligation on one’s 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?
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4.8
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-one’s 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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4.10
Self
Test
Categorical or hypothetical?
• 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 don’t always have an “if”!!!
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4.10
Kant’s 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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4.10
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 it’s 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
wouldn’t 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 can’t exist as a
universal law of nature.”
Kant
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4.10-12
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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4.13
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.
How would Kant behave
towards the shopkeeper?
What does it mean for a teacher to respect students?
Or for you to respect me?
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4.14
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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4.15
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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4.14
The three postulates - Kant
• Autonomy
• Immortality
• God
The power of a priori reason
The reward for a dutiful life
The source of the objective law
Does Kant need God?
Sum up the summum
bonum to Kant.
4.16-17
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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4.18-20
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 don’t lie even to save your friend who’s hiding
in the house from a crazy knifeman.
• Possible to be a moral fanatic like Eichmann.
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4.18
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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4.18
Weakness 4: conflicting duties
• Absolute theories of ethics like Kant’s have a
problem when two “oughts” conflict.
• “Don’t lie” and “don’t kill”. Kant can’t
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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4.18
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”.
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James Rachels
4.20
Strength 2: consistency
• We don’t exempt ourselves or others.
• Everyone is treated as an autonomous lawmaker.
• “A person can’t regard himself as special from
a moral point of view”.
James Rachels
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4.20
Strength 3: dignity/equality
• The value of human beings is absolute.
• We can’t 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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4.20
What have we left out?
• Compare this list with your textbook or John
Waters’ Socratic Ideas powerpoint, or flick
through Lawrence Hinman’s by clicking on
this link.
http://ethics.sandiego.edu/theories/Kant/index.asp
• Do they all agree on the major strengths and
weaknesses of Kant?
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4.20
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)
• Can’t 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?)
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).
Discuss…or maybe prepare a grid of a few
examples.
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