Kant AO2

Kant AO2

1. Compatibility with religion

   • Compatible
     • Reason is similar to conscience
       • Innate awareness of right and wrong
     • Duty
       • Categorical Imperative
         • Comparable with decalogue
           • Legalistic
     • Summum Bonum
       • Immortality
       • Postulate of God
       • Autonomy is similar to free will
       • Similar to Judaeo-Christian idea of the afterlife
   • Incompatible
     • Love overrides duty (Fletcher)
     • Axe man
       • Against preservation of life
     • Kant never affiliated to a religion

2. Reason as a basis of an ethical system

   • Effective
     • Use of our reason avoids guidance by our emotions
     • The Church endorses reason by way of Natural Law
     • Used in some way by all ethical systems
   • Ineffective
     • We should use reason and emotion (Ayer)
       • For example, not everyone responds to crisis appeals because of their reason
     • Not everyone shares the same maxims
       • Cultural differences
     • Could be misled
       • e.g. Yorkshire Ripper
     • Shifts and changes over time

3. Summum Bonum

   • Strengths
     • Logical and deductive
       • If the premises are true then so is the conclusion
       • Must be a next life as a reward
     • Just and fair
       • Moral conduct is rewarded
   • Weaknesses
     • Unverifiable
       • Metaphysical claim
       • Meaningless
     • Autonomy
       • We are not free under determinism
         • Other factors influence our decisions
     • There is no God without experience of him (Hume and Russel)
       • Therefore no Summum Bonum

4. Deontology approach better then teleological

   • Better
     • Fair and equal
     • CI leads to stable and structured society
     • Rational, non-emotive
     • Doesn't use humans as means to ends
     • Clear and absolute
   • Worse
     • Very inflexible
       • Legalistic
       • Double effect is better
     • Teleology is morally democratic
       • Utilitarian: greatest happiness for the greatest number
     • Not everyone has the same sense of duty