Kantian Ethics Case Study

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James Liang is one of the Volkswagen engineers who helped to deceive the United States government as to the emissions produced by Volkswagen’s diesel engines. The Volkswagen team built the diesel engines in 2006, but failed to meet the American emissions standards. Instead of delaying their launch in America or redesigning the engines, the engineers chose to include software that recognized emissions testing and changed the settings of the engine to meet the standards during tests. When not being tested, these engines produced up to 40 times the allowed emissions. Liang has been condemned for his actions, but to understand what makes such actions ethical or otherwise, one must apply an ethical theory to them; in this case, Kantian ethics and …show more content…

Kant proposes that only when the will is aligned with duty can actions be truly good. When Kant refers to the will, he defines it as that which drives the actions of a rational being. Therefore, one’s will determines one’s decisions. The term “duty” also requires some explanation. One’s duty in a given situation is derived from the relevant maxim. A maxim is a statement about how one should behave, such as “I should not steal.” Kant’s theory rejects any exceptions to a rule. A maxim must propose a rule to live by without reservation. Kant also provides a method for one to determine whether one should act in accordance with a certain maxim; one must test it using the categorical imperative. The categorical imperative requires that one consider a world where every decision ever made was based on that maxim. If the maxim produces a world that a rational being could conceive of and choose to live in, it is one’s duty to abide by that maxim in all situations, and vice …show more content…

The software put in the engines by Liang’s colleagues falsified test results, which is a form of lying. Therefore, one could apply the maxim “I must not lie” to his actions. In a world where every statement is a lie, communication would become meaningless, and no rational being could will such a reality. According to Kant, such a reality cannot even be conceived, making the avoidance of lies a perfect duty. This logic clearly condemns Liang’s actions, making the implementation of the software unethical according to Kant. Considering that if every person were to be truthful all the time, it would tend to lead to preferable consequences, a rule utilitarian would agree that this action was

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