Kantian Ethics

Kantian Ethics

1. good will and duty

   • he used the term good to describe the ‘good will’, by which he meant the resolve to act purely in accordance with one’s duty.
   • He believed that, using reason, an individual could work out what one’s duty was.

2. free will,God and immortality

   • he presumed that we could act morally, and for this to be the case we must be free(we are not)
   • must be a God and life after death, otherwise morality would make no sense.

3. synthetic / A priori

   • These laws are determined through experience (a posteriori)
   • The rational being has to determine the synthetic a priori – the substantive rules that can be applied prior to experience.

4. categorical imperative

   • universability
     • A rule that will always consistant no matter the situation
   • Ends in themselves
     • So act as to treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end in itself, never as means only.
   • kingdom of ends; Love your neighbour as yourself