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Deontology vs utilitarianism
Kant and the categorical imperative
Deontology vs utilitarianism
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Curtis, Walters AC160365 J06.V.3.1 Ethics inCriminal Justice Assignment 6_08 March 2, 2017 J06.V.3.1 Ethics inCriminal Justice ETHICS of KANT Immanuel Kant was a supporter of utilitarianism. Kant, believed certain actions like stealing and lying were absoulutly prohibited, even when there was the possibility of a positive outcome rather than a negative one. KANT belived that the principles of morality that is referred to as the Categorical Imperative that determines what moral duties we have. 1. Kants theory says something about what makes a good person. his theory evaluates people, not their actions. if a persons actions are right or wrong, morally worthy or lacks
Each position in criminal justice holds power and responsibility, and therefore, it is very important that said people in those positions do not abuse it. Unethical behavior in the criminal justice system takes away trust and respect from authority, and as a consequence, the law is more easily disregarded if the people lack faith in the system. It can, also, contribute to crime and/or cause citizens to not report crimes. Society should have indubitable confidence in the men and women of the criminal justice system. Law enforcement officers violating even the smallest rule could lead to more serious infractions. Syed (1997) states, "Every instance of corruption bends or violates a rule or law and, similar to the granting of impunity, may contribute to an officer's perceptions of the law as applying differently to different people and increase the ease with which violations can be rationalized." Having less than ethical persons in our criminal justice system can lead to a weakened society, the ruining of lives, and even add to crime.
In this paper, I will argue that Kant provides us with a plausible account of morality. To demonstrate that, I will initially offer a main criticism of Kantian moral theory, through explaining Bernard Williams’ charge against it. I will look at his indulgent of the Kantian theory, and then clarify whether I find it objectionable. The second part, I will try to defend Kant’s theory.
"What is Kantianism and how does it affect me?" as many would ask themselves. Kantianism came about when the German philosopher Immanuel Kant viewed rationality as the ultimate good and that people were all fundamentally rational being. The idea is that the actions that people are to perform are not guided by emotions or goals but rather on duty, what is expected of a person to do in a given situation, making it a deontological moral theory. It is an absolutist theory because he specifies that there are certain moral actions are deemed absolutely bad like killing or lying.
This theory judges the morality of an action based on the actions adherence to a set of rules. It is explained as an action is morally right if it is required by duty, and should not conflict with any other action required by another duty. By doing our duty we do what is valuable, this theory focuses on the structure of moral judgment. One should act regardless of your own aims or self-interest. Kant formalism is based on deontology and are united and their opposition to purely oppose the consequentiality moral thinking; some even hold that a morally wrong may have entirely good consequences, and a morally right on entirely bad consequences (Frankena, 1973. 16). Kant’s formalism is straight forward, basically in simple terms; would you like it if someone did that to you? No? Then that action is morally wrong. According to Kant, some problems with consequentialism, he believes if we are incline to do what we feel is good trying to produce good consequences then this act is not morally responsible. People differ in what they feel are good consequences therefore we can never truly know and achieve agreement if this action is morally sound. Because Kant does not believe that ethics is based on a desire, need or emotions but is about what’s is right and doing one’s duty (Mizzoni, 2010.
Immanuel Kant is a popular modern day philosopher. He was a modest and humble man of his time. He never left his hometown, never married and never strayed from his schedule. Kant may come off as boring, while he was an introvert but he had a great amount to offer. His thoughts and concepts from the 1700s are still observed today. His most recognized work is from the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Here Kant expresses his idea of ‘The Good Will’ and the ‘Categorical Imperative’.
Similarly both attorneys and police officers face dilemmas that are entwined with their line of work. Two main comparable ethical dilemmas are personal gain and the abuse of power. Some attorneys deny the liberty or even the bail of some defendants, when it is reasonable, just because they want to. Certainly this leads to the ideal of abuse of power. Also, many attorneys receive “compensations, benefits, and pay-offs” in order to get someone off-the-hook or to speed up the case. Equally, police officers abuse their power and constantly ponder on personal gain.
Immanuel Kant was an eighteenth century philosopher whose ideas redefined philosophical views of morality and justice, and provided a base for modern philosophers to argue these ideas. In Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, he argues against Hume’s idea of utilitarianism. Kant also explores the idea of freedom, free action, moral action, and how to determine if our actions are moral by use of the categorical imperative.
Kant opens up Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals by saying, “Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good without qualification, except a good will,” and it is with this sentence that he introduces his idea of non-consequentialism (p. 151). Non-consequentialism can be described as a philosophical theory that states that the morality of our behaviour does not depend on the consequences of our actions, but instead depends on the intent with which we perform these actions. With this piece of writing, Kant attempts to delve deeper into the principles of human morality, discover what makes an action right or wrong, and determine the correct motives for performing any action.
Emmanuel Kant was a influential philosopher and strong proponent of the modern era. Besides his large contribution to epistemology and metaphysics, his work in ethics was just as substantial. Kant’s ethics came to propose an objective morality, where moral judgments is not only true according to a person 's subjective view. He believed the moral worth of an action is not determined by its consequence but the motive behind it. Additionally, the “only motive that can endow an act with moral value, is one that arises from universal principles discovered by reason” (McCormick). Through Kant’s ethics, he demonstrates this duty through his unconditional moral principle, the categorical imperative. The categorical imperative expresses that morality is not about the outcome (good or bad), but the right action regardless of the outcome. It is the responsibility to do one 's duty for its own sake and not in pursuit of one’s own desire.
Throughout the history of humanity, morals have been incorporated into everyday life. The first set of morals came from religion, which told people what to do and not do to go to heaven. To centuries, the morals established by the church had never been questioned. To analyze the kind of morals, present in humanities every day, philosophers identified the different types of ethical moral. Two of this philosopher 's theories would be defined to find the similarities and differences that impact humanity. One of this philosophers is Utilitarian John Stuart Mill, author of Utilitarianism that focuses on utility. The other philosopher is metaphysician Immanuel Kant, author of Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals focusing on the theory of Categorical
Kant’s moral philosophy is built around the formal principles of ethics rather than substantive human goods. He begins by outlining the principles of reasoning that can be equally expected of all rational persons regardless of their individual desires or partial interests. It creates an ideal universal community of rational individuals who can collectively agree on the moral principles for guiding equality and autonomy. This is what forms the basis for contemporary human rig...
Kant believes that justifying an act based on its consequence is too subjective; it makes morality too individualistic and opens the door for moral inequality. As human beings, we all posses the faculty of reason, Kant says that for an act to be considered moral it must be “reasonable”, but in this case reason does not mean logic, it means the human ability to understand a categorical concept of morality. Kant adds that this will lead us to a universal code, which is the “universal moral principle” that we as humans must all abide too. Meaning, we must act in a way that others should act, we as individuals cannot have our own moral law; it has to apply to everyone. He also goes into depth about Autonomy vs. Heteronomy, which is about making a choice as a ends and not a means. Autonomy means making a choice as an end in and of itself and not a mean, this is when one differentiates between the act and the consequence. Heteronomy means acting according to an external determination and this type of reasoning for an action makes it immoral. Kant does not care about the consequence, the only thing that matters and the only way an act can be rendered moral is the persons motive of duty to a universal rational principle when the specific act is being perused. Kant also emphasizes that as humans we must value human dignity, we must treat other as an end and not as a
Kant theory is saying that everyone must do things for the right reasons. According to Deontological ethics theory, an action is considered favourable sometimes because of some good aspect of action in itself without considering its good result from the action. This theory is much based upon the one’s morals and values which expresses the “sake of duty” and virtue. Deontology tells us to be fair and not to take advantage of others while teleology tells about doing whatever we want and it gives us a result that is good to us. [17]
While Kant’s theory may seem “overly optimistic” (Johnson, 2008) now, it was ruled as acceptable and rational behavior then. Kant believed that any moral or ethical decision could be achieved with consistent behavior. While judgment was based on reason, morals were based on rational choices made by human beings (Freeman, 2000). A human’s brain is the most advanced in the animal kingdom. Not only do human beings work on instinct, but they have the ability to sort out situations in order to make a decision. This includes weighing the pros and cons of decisions that could be made and how they affect others either positively or negatively. This is called rational thought. Kant believed that any human being able to rationalize a decision before it was made had the ability to be a morally just person (Freeman, 2000). There were certain things that made the decision moral, and he called it the “Categorical Imperative” (Johnson, 2008). If someone was immoral they violated this CI and were considered irrational. The CI is said to be an automatic response which was part of Kant’s argument that all people were deserving of respect. This automatic response to rational thinking is where he is considered, now, to be “overly optimistic” (Johnson, 2008).
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher who has played a vital role in the development of modern philosophy. In his writing he discusses the duty of rational beings and what these duties entail.