What Is The Hypothetical Imperative And Categorical Imperatives?

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In contrast to utilitarianism, deontology uses an action and the intent behind the action to determine the morality of the action rather than the outcomes of the actions. Deontology argues that reason forms the basis of right and wrong. Therefore, using reason, Kant asserts that there are two types of obligations. These two types of obligations are hypothetical imperatives and categorical imperatives. Hypothetical imperatives essentially give instructions based on a person’s individual preference and vary for each situation, Categorical imperatives, unlike hypothetical imperatives, give commands/instructions that are to be applied regardless of personal preferences. One major categorical imperative states that an action is permissible if both …show more content…

This would lead to the collapse of the healthcare system and hospitals would no longer exist, which would severely hurt the entire world of medicine and humans in general. Therefore, it would be safe to assume that such a world would not conform to reason, thus preventing the hospital from proceeding with the treatments through the use of the first categorical imperative. Furthermore, the hospital’s action would also violate the second categorical imperative, which states that a human being “exists as ends in themselves, that is as something which must not be used merely as means” (Marino 223). In this case, the hospital administrators would be using the terminally ill patients as a means to conduct their experiments and develop a cancer treatment. Since they would be actively violating the autonomy of these people, the hospital should not proceed with the treatments. Honestly, it seems that deontology handles this case very well because it considers the problems associated with the broken obligations of the hospital administrators and the abuse of human autonomy. Unfortunately, deontology also has some weakness associated with the case. One major weakness is the inability to account for the consequences of the action because, when looking at consequences, the treatments has the

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