Immanuel Kant, a staunch idealist is most widely known for his work on the Duty Ethics. His work of Duty Ethics has been widely criticized for hundreds of years in part due to his extreme approach at life and ethics alike. Duty Ethics as Kant describes, involves the use of pure reason with the end goal of transcending the phenomenal world. Kant is able to apply his teachings many times throughout history, and in one case in particular alongside Maria von Herbert. It is within this particular case that Kant’s idea of Duty Ethics is put into question as being somewhat too extreme, ultimately resulting in the suicide of von Herbert. Overall, Kant’s Duty Ethics to me is over the top, particularly due to his belief in that every action is a …show more content…
Kant’s ethical theory, Duty Ethics is one that takes an extreme look into the lives of oneself and others, ultimately offering a standard upon which to base one’s life. The idea of Duty Ethics is broken down into two separate worlds. The first of the two worlds, the phenomenal world also known as the world of physical things works solely according to physical laws. A being that acts at the physical level is one that is heteronymous and is given a false sense of freedom. The second world is the noumenal world also known as the world of pure reason. A being that works at the world of pure reason is autonomous or truly free. These two worlds are important to Duty Ethics because the ultimate goal of Duty Ethics is to use pure reason to transcend the phenomenal world into the noumenal world. Kant later explains however, that the only way for one to transcend into the noumenal world is by obeying the categorical imperative, a command that obligates all rational beings, in all categories, all the time through pure reason. There are two …show more content…
Maria was a very troubled woman who had recently confessed to the man she loved of a previous relationship in which the man abused the trust she put in him. In her letters to Kant, Maria explains that she is unable to use her sense of reason when she feels she needs it most. She later makes a point that she should not end her life simply because she is tormented but rather she should live because of her being. In her explanation of her thoughts behind her choice, Maria is explaining to Kant that she no longer sees the need to live when she merely lives to become closer to death. She continues by telling Kant that she is perfectly able to use her pure reason when it comes to anything else in life, but she is unable to reason her way through her decision between life and death because she no longer sees a desire to live any longer. In Kant’s response to Maria, he more so responds to her problem with the man she loves despite what she had to say about ending her life. He brings up the point that she shouldn’t be concerned about the consequences of the actions she has made in the past because she has made the right decision in confronting her loved one due to her use of reason. Kant does little in comforting her broken heart, but rather explains that with time, focusing on instruction and penalty, she will ultimately find comfort. In my opinion, the advice given
Categorical imperatives are the basis of morality because they provoke pure reasons for every human beings actions. By the end of his work, one will understand Kant’s beliefs on morality, but to explain this, he goes into depth on the difference between hypothetical imperatives and Categorical Imperative, two different formulations of the Categorical Imperative, and a few examples. According to Kant, there are two types on imperatives, categorical imperatives and hypothetical imperatives. The Categorical Imperative is based on relation and not by means, which hypothetical imperatives are based on.
According to Kant “… nothing can protect us from a complete falling away from our idea of duty and preserve in the soul a well-grounded respect for duty’s law except the clear conviction that, even if there never have been actions springing from such pure source, the question at issue here is not whether this or that happened but that reason of itself and independently of all experience commands what ought to happen.” (Kant, Page 20(lines 407-412)). Kant points out that the duty is done not because of the ends but because of what is fundamentally good or
Great philosophers such as Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill and Plato unwittingly weighed in on this story, long before it ever occurred. Immanuel Kant is considered a significant and influential figure in modern philosophy. He may have single handedly set the tone on how humanity conducts themselves in society. Kant’s Categorical Imperative is basically a set of principles that we should follow. Essentially, it is our moral duty to uphold these laws whether you want to or not and that they are universal, meaning no one is immune to the rules. Michael Yudanin states one “to be compliant with the moral law, it has to be universalizable, that is, it has to be capable to be thought as a universal law that binds everybody, everywhere, and at any point in time, without contradiction” (Yudanin).
The second act of Kant’s categorical imperative pertains to how we treat others. According to Kant, we must “Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an
Overall Kant’s concepts of ‘The Good Will’ and ‘The Categorical Imperative’ can be applied to any situation. His ideas of moral law, good will, duty, maxims, and universal law all intertwine to support his belief. As a whole his concept enables the Kingdom of Ends, which is the desired result of the morality of humanity. Everyone is to treat everyone based upon true good will actions instead of personal gains, this way no one gets used. In all Kant trusts if this is achieved there will be universal peace across humanity.
Philosophy is the study of knowledge, reality, existence and thought processes. Immanuel Kant from Prussia, (currently Russia) for whom was influential during the Enlightenment period; and John Stuart Mill from Great Britain whom was present during the Romantic era, explored ideas that they believed would create a more fair and just society, by trying to legislate morality. Morality cannot be legislated because it is a concept of right and wrong created by each different religion, region and culture; issues are not black and white.
German philosopher Immanuel Kant popularized the philosophy of deontology, which is described as actions that are based on obligation rather than personal gain or happiness (Rich & Butts, 2014). While developing his theory, Kant deemed two qualities that are essential for an action to be deemed an ethical. First, he believed it was never acceptable to sacrifice freedom of others to achieve a desired goal. In other words, he believed in equal respect for all humans. Each human has a right for freedom and justice, and if an action takes away the freedom of another, it is no longer ethical or morally correct. Secondly, he held that good will is most important, and that what is good is not determined by the outcome of the situation but by the action made (Johnson, 2008). In short, he simply meant that the consequences of a situation do not matter, only the intention of an action. Kant also declared that for an act to be considered morally correct, the act must be driven by duty alone. By extension, there could be no other motivation such as lo...
Kant made a distinction between two types of duties which are hypothetical imperatives and categorical imperatives. Hypothetical imperatives are rules or duties people ought to observe if certain ends are to be achieved. Hypothetical imperatives are sometimes called “if-then” imperatives, which are condit...
In Section One and Section Two of his work. Kant explores his position on his fundamental principle of morality, or his “categorical imperative”, or his idea that all actions are moral and “good” if they are performed as a duty. Such an idea is exemplified when he says, “I should never act except in such a way that I can also will that my maxim should become a universal law” (Kant 14). The philosopher uses examples such as suicide and helping others in distress to apply his principal to possible real life situation. Kant is successful in regards to both issues. As a result, it means that categorical imperative can plausibly be understood as the fundamental principle of all morality. Kant’s reasoning for his categorical imperative is written in a way that makes the theory out to be very plausible.
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...
Through his discussion of morals in the Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, Immanuel Kant explores the question of whether a human being is capable of acting solely out of pure duty and if our actions hold true moral value. In passage 407, page 19, Kant proposes that if one were to look at past experiences, one cannot be certain that his or her rationalization for performing an action that conforms with duty could rest solely on moral grounds. In order to fully explain the core principle of moral theory, Kant distinguishes between key notions such as a priori and a posteriori, and hypothetical imperative vs. categorical imperative, in order to argue whether the actions of rational beings are actually moral or if they are only moral because of one’s hidden inclinations.
Deontological ethical theory focuses on duty. It is viewed that humans have a duty in doing what is ethically right in any given situation. However, the categorical imperative does not have the same ideas it does not consist of duties to us. As Kant indicates in the idea of the Kingdom of Ends that our duty lies in treating all human beings as ends in and of them instead of as a means to an end it is perceived as being an extension of us. It is based on the desires of a person on how they want to be treated and will succeed as long as the universal good is applied as well. In other words, our actions and behaviors applied in our lives, we can see others imitating. For instance, can we see a world where everyone lied willingly? It does not make sense it would defeat the purpose of being able to identify the truth there would be no meaning. The ethical duty is to be truthful.
People face ethical choices every day, and there are several different approaches towards reaching a decision. A professor is tasked with making a decision as to whether he should report a high-achieving student, Charlie, for plagiarizing an article. The professor must use reasoning and ethics. One of the most famous form of ethics is Kantian ethics, which is a form of deontology, or duty-based ethics. The professor can use Kantian ethics to make his decision, or he can take into account the context of the situation to further asses as I would do.
#2 "Duty is the necessity to act out of reverence for the law." The definition of duty according to Kant is that it is a specific moral rule that is derivable from a universal moral code. Kant raises a distinction between perfect duties and imperfect duties. A perfect duty is one that one must always do and an imperfect duty is a duty which one must not ignore but admits of multiple means of fulfillment.
Kant was definitely a perfect world philosopher who had good ideas and beliefs about how the world should work but they were just unrealistic expectations of what people should do. Kant thinks that all rational beings are instilled with good will therefore should strive to always do actions out of good will. Kant also explained that actions should be done out of duty and not inclination for them to be considered morally right because you should do things because they are right and not because its going to benefit us. Imperatives to Kant were a way to check what kind of decision a person was going to make. With all these concepts anyone can see that Kant had a good idea of what people should be like, however, it is just not rational to believe that everyone is going to stop and really think about every decision they make through.