Kant's Code Of Ethics Essay

Despite surpassing Toyota as the world’s best-selling automaker of 2016, Volkswagen has also become the latest scandal amongst automakers for its “clean diesel” engine1 . On Friday September 9th, James Robert Liang, an engineer for Volkswagen pleaded guilty for the role he has played in “a nearly 10-year conspiracy” of swindling U.S. customers and regulators2. In 2006, Liang and his team were designing a new EA 189 in Wolfsburg, Germany to be sold in the United States. Liang and his co-conspirators reached the conclusion that the new engine would not be able to meet the strict U.S. emission standards set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To meet consumer demand in the U.S., Liang and his co-conspirators developed a software

To understand what Kant means by duty, one must understand the meaning of “will”. Every action performed is governed by will, or what motivates one to perform an action. In the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Kant gives the criterion that will must be “good without qualification.” 4 For a will to be good without qualification, it must not depend on subjective judgement. Good will stems from acting in respect to moral law. Given this distinction, we can understand that duty serves as our moral obligation to act without inclination or the desire to be in a state of constant

When given the task to act out of duty we must be aware of the moral law. To be aware of the moral law, Kant suggest the employment of the categorical imperative. Categorical imperatives are not dependent on one’s inclinations; they are unquestionable moral obligations that are binding in all circumstances. To determine whether a law is moral, Kant offers three formulations of the categorical imperative to make this distinction. First, he says to “act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”4 That is, we should only act in such a way that our reason for acting is the same for everyone. Secondly, “act in such a way that you treat humanity… never as merely a means to an end but always at the same time as an end.”4 Kant places emphasis on humans stating that we deserve the utmost moral respect from one another. Lastly, Kant states the act must have “the idea of the will of every rational being as a universally legislating will.”4 This formulation introduces the distinction between heteronomy and autonomy. Categorical imperatives require autonomy or