Immanuel Kant

He was __________

German

Was Kant married?

He never married

Made major contributions to:

• ethics

• aesthetics

• epistemology

• idealism

Kant’s relationship to Descartes and Francis Bacon

What he did was synthesized skepticism of Descartes with empiricism of Bacon

Kant’s relationship to Hume

• Kant says reading Hume woke him from his dogmatic slumber

• He was a simple realist until he realized you can be wrong in what you’re experiencing

He founded ____________

Deontology

What is deontology?

• Deontology = duty

• Means a theory of applied duty

• Where does the duty come from? – the categorical imperative

• Following the law of you realizing your own freedom

• Binding force of duty is from the agent – in deontology you tell yourself what to do based on what you think is the right thing to do

The 5 a priori

1. The object of study for ethics is the will.

2. The faculty of reason governs the will.

3. Reason guides the will according to duty.

4. Reason guides the will to intend duty in accordance with the law.

5. The Law that is compatible with reason and free will is the categorical imperative

   1. This comes from an agent thinking about their own willing

   2. The law he is talking about is the CI which comes from the agent

For Kant, the primary purpose of law is to ___________

• To reinforce duty – to reinforce agents acting from the CI

• Positive law should not be followed if it violates the CI

5 formulae of the CI

1. Formula of the Universal Law

2. Formula of the Law of Nature

3. Formula of the End in Itself

4. Formula of Autonomy

5. Formula of the Kingdom of Ends

Know what the Kingdom of Ends is and how it functions

• Conflict happens in the kingdom of ends

• all rational beings are treated with dignity and respect

• all rational beings have autonomy that must be respected - autonomy is the ground of dignity

Two Standpoint Theory

• One standpoint is the world of sense (what you perceive)

• The world of understanding – because we perceive ourselves and are also the thing perceiving ourselves we can bridge that gap

• I as a rational agent am a human being – can experience the physicality of that and I know what it is to be a human so you can bridge the gap between these two standpoints

What can I know?
What should I do?
What may I hope?

1. The results of the domain of the natural sciences

2. Act in accordance with the moral law – CI

3. We can hope there is a god, that the human soul is immortal, and those two together can guarantee justice