Download Immanuel Kant

Think Pair Share
 “Evaluating Kant’s Duties and Inclinations by
Ranking Actions”
Immanuel Kant
The Categorical Imperative
Immanuel Kant
1724-1804
Kantian Ethics:
The Basics
Kantian Ethics: The Basics
 Kant’s approach is Deontological. This means
that for Kant, the right or wrongness of the action is
in the action itself, and not in its consequences.
 Deon is the Greek word for duty
 judges the morality of an action based on the
action's adherence to a rule or rules
 It is sometimes described as "duty" or "obligation"
or "rule"-based ethics, because rules "bind you to
your duty.
Duty
Duty
 Duty vs Inclination?
 Good will
 Sometimes, actions are motivated by inclination
and conflict with duty; by doing what you feel like doing, you
do what you shouldn’t do.
 Sometimes, actions are motivated by inclination
but conform to duty; by doing what you feel like doing, you
also happen to be doing what you should do.
 Sometimes, actions are motivated by duty but conflict with
inclination; by doing what you should do, you don’t do what
you want to do
Universal Law
The Moral Law- Universalizability
 An action is good, Kant says, if it stems from a good will
 So an action is good if it is motivated by respect for the
moral law. But what is the moral law?
 always act from motivations, or maxims, which we could rationally
want everyone else to follow as well
 Moral law (The Principle of Universalizability) = Always act from
motivations, or maxims, which you could rationally
want everyone else to follow as well.
The Moral Law- Universalizability
 "Should I be content that my maxim (to extricate
myself from difficulty by a false promise) should
hold good as a universal law, for myself as well as
for others? and should I be able to say to myself,
"Every one may make a deceitful promise when he
finds himself in difficulty from which he cannot
otherwise extricate himself?"
The Moral Law- Universalizability
 Ask yourself two questions:
1) “What maxim, or principle, would I be following if I
did this?” and
2) “Could I rationally want everyone to follow this
maxim, and act in a similar way?”
 The maxim you’d be following would be something
like “Break a promise in order to get out of trouble.”
 Could you rationally want this to be a rule for
everyone?
The Moral Law- Universalizability
 If “break promises” were a rule for everyone then
there would be no promises to break since the very
notion of a promise implies they aren’t usually
broken.
 Logically inconsistency
 nobody can rationally want this rule to hold for everyone
 Rationally wanting every to follow maxim M =
Perceiving that there is no logical contradiction
involved in everyone following M.
Universalizing
 Should a Kantian lie to get out of a social
gathering?
Answer
 A Kantian would ask “Is the rule ‘Lie’ a consistent
rule?” The answer would be “No. If the rule ‘Lie’
were true then it couldn’t even be stated without
contradicting itself. If the rule were true, and you
truthfully told someone ‘Lie,’ then you aren’t lying
so you’re breaking the rule! See? The rule is
inconsistent!” That’s why the Kantian would decide
that she shouldn’t lie.