Kant Ethics

What is unconditionally good according to Kant?

Good will

What makes a will good?

The ability to reliably know what your duty is.

• Commitment to acting from that duty: doing your duty for its own sake.

Consequentialism

Whether an act is morally right or wrong depends only on its consequences.

• Mill and Singer

Deontology

Whether an act is morally right or wrong depends on our duties. It is not settled by the consequences of our actions.

• Kant

  • Ex: What do you owe/have a duty to grandma to lie or not?

Principle of Universalizability

An act is right if and only if its maxim is universalizable.

Maxim

A personal policy of action.

• Specifies an act and a purpose for performing that act.

  • “I will ________ in order to ______.”

Will test

Would you achieve your goal in that world?

Conception Test

Can you imagine a world where everyone acted on that maxim?

Good Will

Having good intentions about something.

• acting solely from a sense of duty, which means following moral laws or principles regardless of personal consequences

  • Always good, even if it leads to bad outcomes.

    • Ex: Helping someone in need. It’s your duty, not because you feel good about it or expect something in return.

Categorical Imperative

A moral rule that commands you to act in a certain way regardless of your desires or goals. It is unconditional

• You should do ___, no matter what.

  • You should always tell the truth.

Hypothetical Imperative

A type of command or rule that tells you to do something only if you want to achieve a particular goal.

• “If you want ___, then you should do ____.”

  • “If you want to be healthy, you should exercise.”

Principle of Humanity

Always treat humanity as an end, never as a mere means.

What does Kant mean by “Humanity”

The capacity for rational choice.

• The ability to choose things.

How do you determine if an action satisfies the principle of universalizability?

1. Formulate the Maxim: “What rule am I following by doing this?”

2. Universalize the Maxim: “What would happen if everyone acted this way?”

3. Check for Contradictions

What does it mean to treat humanity as an end?

A goal or value. Something that you act for the sake of.

• Something that you strive for or consider important, that guides your actions and decisions.

  • You have an employee who is struggling financially, and provide support because you recognize their dignity as a human being, rather than underpaying them to max profits.

What does it mean to Treat humanity as means?

Use people as tools but still respecting them, achieve your own goods considering their dignity and autonomy.

• Ex: Underpaying employees, because you only care about maxing profits.

Treat humanity as a mere means?

Using people purely as tools for your own benefit. Exploiting and manipulating them without considering there rights.

• Ex: Scammer scams elderly people into giving away their savings. They only see them as a way to get money.

Why does the principle of universalizability show that it is wrong to make lying promises?

Lying promises destroy the whole idea of promising, it is logically impossible as a universal moral rule.

• Shows that lying promises are always wrong.

  • Ex: “It’s okay to make a promise you don’t intend to keep.” No promises would be made if everyone followed this rule.

Why does the principle of universalizability show that we have a duty to help others?

An action is morally right only if the rule behind it could be applied to everyone without contradiction.

• A world where no one helps would be irrational and undesirable.