Kantian Ethics

Key terms

Good will

The intention to do the right action for its own sake without any other motivation. It is the only thing that is morally good without qualification.

Acting out of duty

Doing the right action with a good will; for the sole reason that it is your duty.

Acting in accordance with duty

Doing the right action but not because it is your duty; there is external motivation to do this action.

Hypothetical imperative

Commands action as a means to an end.A command that instructs action as a means to achieve a specific goal.

Categorical imperative

Absolute commands we are obliged to follow in all circumstances are categorical and only these imperatives are moral. As rational agents we can work out the categorical imperative by asking whether the maxim that lies behind our action is universalisable and treats people as ends in themselves.

Contradiction in conception

A maxim is wrong if willing everyone to act on it would be somehow self-contradictory.

Contradiction in will

This is where willing a certain maxim would be contradictory, not because it leads to a logical contradiction, but because it leads to something it would be irrational to want.

A perfect duty

A duty which one must always do.

An imperfect duty

A duty which one must not ignore but has multiple means of fulfilment. Kant specifies two imperfect duties: the duty of self-improvement sand the duty to aid others.

First formulation of categorical imperative

"I ought never to act except in such a way that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law"

Second formulation of categorical imperative

"Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or the person of another, always as an end and never simply as a means"