Kantian ethics

Kantian ethics

1. Intoduction

   • Kant's philosophical work exemplifies the belief, in an ancestry derived from Newton, that through reason we may not only understand the universe, but govern our own lives fully and rationally. Kant's most famous work was the The Critique of Pure Reason
   • While a passionate believer in the autonomy of reason, he explored the limits of that reason. He distinguished between what might be the world as it is and the world as it it known to us in the phenomena of our minds

2. Kants moral teaching

   • Central to Kant's moral theorising were his fundamental values of reason, autonomy and freedom. His argument for our freedom is based on a reasoned consideration of our own mental experience- our ability to set goals for ourselves is something we know by introspection. We know ourselves to be the ones who both choose these goals and who decide how to achieve them
   • As we have seen, for Kant, autonomy was the central condition of rational thought. In the Groundwork, he explains his reasons for believing that errors in moral thinking had arisen from heteronymous approaches, that is, obedience to moral laws laid down by others, whether rules or the Church
   • Reason enables us to reflect on ourselves. We have free will, and so must use our will as well as we can, which means to will the good. Outcomes are never clear, and may be dictated by feeling rather than reason. We do not know whether actions have the effects we intend and do no know the unexpected ways in which people and things will behave in the future. Therefore, Kant argues, what matters in virtue is that the will should be good, regardless of outcome
   • It has become normal practice to see Kant's ethical thought as deontological. However it would be wrong to say that Kant is not concerned with outcomes at all
   • Kant's theory is perhaps the most obviously absolutist of all moral theories

3. The categorical imperative

   • It is one thing to say that we must always follow the requirements of duty, but that is unhelpful without specifying what our duty is. It is common to describe Kant's understanding of duty in terms of the first, second and third forms
   • The first form of the categorical imperative
     • This is sometimes known as the principle of universalisation or less commonly, and perhaps less clearly, as the 'formula of the law of nature'. Kant argues that we should should act only on the maxim that we are willing to follow as a law, and at the same time, have that law apply for everyone
     • Interestingly, Kant develops the point through a fairly narrow range of examples: deception, theft, suicide, laziness, charity and cruelty to animals. This narrow range of examples perhaps invites philosophers to question whether there are other actions which are moral requirements to be applied universally
     • Kant insists, in his search for a single principle that we must always act on universalisable maxim, regardless of consequences. But this permits actual harm in some cases
   • The second form of the categorical imperative
     • This is sometimes referred to as the principle of the priority of ends or occasionally as the 'formula of the end in itself'. It can be summarised as arguing that we should so act as to treat everyone- ourselves as well as others- always as ends, and never as means
     • Consider a certain type of entrepreneur interested only in the bottom line, the profit his company and himself will make. His workers are tools, to be paid as little as possible. People are being used, with no concern for their good. Most of us would argue that this is wrong.
     • For example on the night of 14 November 1941, in the largest bombing raid so far carried out, 449 German bombers dropped 30,000 incendiary bombs on Coverntry. 568 civilians were killed. Churchill could have moved the people out before the raid but chose not to because then the Germans would have figured out that they had broken the enigma code. This would have led to an untold number of deaths and other suffering. If the facts are as they are now believed to be, then the authorities were using the people of Coventry as means for the sake of others as ends.
   • The third form of the categorical imperative
     • Sometimes known as 'the kingdom of ends', this follows from the other forms. Kant sees it as a clarification of our own duty of acting in accordance with the categorical imperative. This argues that: every rational being must act as if through his universalised maxim he were always a legislating member in the universal kingdom of ends. This means that we must act as if our actions made laws for everyone else, and everyone else acted in the same way

4. Immortality and God

   • There has been much debate over Kant's religious belief. Some supporters and opponents have seen him as an atheist. Yet we find in Kant a belief in personal immortality and an argument for God. For Kant, there are three postulates of particle reason: that we are free beings, that we are immortal and that God exists
   • Freedom is connected to Kant's view that we are fully rational beings capable of knowing absolutely what our duty is. of course for him we do our duty because it is rational to do so, and not because God has commanded it
   • We have seen Kant's rejection of ontological arguments. The argument Kant gives is: Rationally, perfect virtue ought to be rewarded by perfect happiness. The combination of perfect happiness and perfect goodness is the summum bonum ('highest good'). Clearly this is not achieved in life. Good things happen to bad people. Therefore, because the summum bonum ought to be achieved, it can be achieved. If it is not achievable in this life, it must be achievable in the next, which means we need immortality. If summum bonum exists in the next life, there must be someone to provide it. This someone is obviously God