Deontology Flashcards
Give a fact to illustrate the influence K has had on philosophy
K’s influence is so great that philosophy is sometimes divided into pre and post K
What did K think humans could do?
Central to his project was the idea that humans could use their reason to make the world a better place
What cultural movement at the time did such an idea align with?
Such idealism was rge hallmark of the European Enlightenment (mid 17th century to the end of the 18th). Saw intellectuals increasingly turning to their own rationality, rather than religious doctrine, to solve the problems of the day. The era saw increased faith in the potential of the natural sciences and is often considered to be the intellectual birthplace of Western democracy: it was against the backdrop of the Enlightenment that the French and Americans Revolutions wrestled control from ancient monarchies and put in place their fledgling republicans
What set K apart from other enlightenment thinkers?
What set K apart from other E figures was he commitment to finding out what reason could and could not tell us
What did he famously talk of doing within philosophy?
He famously talked of instituting a copernican revolution in the way philosophy was done
Explain the influence of religion on the way K wrote
K was a devout Christian, but largely tried to work from an agnostic basis. K thought we can’t know for sure whether God exists. He thought that we might have good reasons to believe in him, but we can not be absolutely certain that he exists. As a result, when he did write about God, he concentrated on how little we could know about him through speculative thought. This is why he criticised many of the arguments for the existence of God we have encountered
What did he think we needed to do to discover the right thing to do in an ethical situation?
He thought that when it came to ethics, he thought that we need only to reflect to know what to do
Give a quote from K to display his idea that moral law is within us
‘Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often we steadily reflect on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me’
Explain K’s idea that reason governs morality
K thinks reason governs morality. Knowing what is right and wrong is like solving an equation: there is only one correct answer, and we simply apply the right method to find it
Explain the link K makes between acting morally and the fact that we are rational beings
Doing the right thing is our duty as rational beings. If we do the wrong thing we are not just acting immorally, but irrationally too
What two types of imperitives does he distinguish between?
Hypothetical and categorical
What are imperitives?
Imperatives are just commands – instructions which tell is what to do
What are hypothetical imperitives?
Hypothetical imperatives usually look like this: ‘You ought to do X if you want to get Y’. They command us to do something if we want something else. They are conditional commands.
What are categorical imperatives?
Categorical imperatives are usually in the form ‘You ought to do X’. They command us to just do it. They are unconditional commands
What does K see as the only way of performing a good action?
K thinks we can only do something good if it is done unconditionally, with no strings attached. As a result, it is our duty to do good. For instance, it is a soldier’s duty to protect the nation, so even if they wake up that morning and don’t feel like fighting, they still must do it
Give a quote that illustrates K’s idea that only intentions matter
‘Nothing in the world, or out of it, can possibly be conceived that could be called ‘good’ without qualification except a ‘good will’. It isn’t what brings it about, its usefulness in achieving some intended end. Rather, good will is good because of how it wills, it is good in itself
Explain K’s idea that it is the intention behind actions that matters
He goes on to say that other things which might be considered good, such as ‘intelligence, wit and judgement’ and crucially happiness, if misused or misappropriated, can be bad. This good will is said to ‘sparkle like a jewel all by itself’; its value doesn’t ‘go up or down depending on how useful or fruitless it is’. It is ‘the condition of all other goods, even the desire for happiness’; it is life lived in accordance with reason
It doesn’t make sense to say anything else is good, because rationality requires a good that is absolute – whereas, any other thing we might consider to be good, could, in some circumstances, turn out to be bad. From this standpoint, K derives his entire system of deontological ethics
Give a quote from K where he explains the first formulation
‘Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law’ (Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals)
What does the first formulation mean we must do when faced with an ethical decision?
K’s first form of the categorical imperative gives rise to a particular procedure for making moral decisions which is sometimes known as the universalisability test. The core idea is that when we make any moral decision, we must ask ourselves whether everybody else could do the same thing in similar circumstances. In K’s language, we are making a maxim and working out whether it could become a universal law
Give an example of a proposition that is not universalisable
For some actions, this is clearly impossible. For example, if someone came up with the universal maxim that it is permissible to steal whenever you like, this would become self-defeating, as constant stealing would erode the notion of private property altogether, thus meaning that there would be nothing to steal
Give an example of a proposition that is easily universalisable
On the other hand, the maxim, ‘it is permissible to torture small children’, can easily be univeralised. If nobody ever tortures small children, no problem is likely to arise. There is nothing contradictory or self-defeating about this rule. However, the opposite maxim, that torturing small children is okay, could quickly lead to problems
What is another reason why K would disagree with torture?
K would also have a problem with torture because it treats people as a means to an end
What two categories does K divide duties into?
In Groundwork, K divides duties into the categories of perfect and imperfect
What are perfect duties?
Perfect duties are those such as ‘do not kill’ or ‘do not steal’ - their universalisation involves an obvious logical contradiction (logical contradictions)
Explain the idea of imperfect duties
Imperfect duties are those that don’t involve an obvious logical contradiction but are nonetheless undesirable for a rational being. For instance, there is no logical contradiction in univeralising the maxim, ‘when in need, feel free to urinate on tombstones’; as society would not collapse if people did this. However, this does change the fact that it is hard to imagine a society where people are happy defiling the resting places of their ancestors . K would therefore argue we have an imperfect duty not to act disrespectfully towards the dead (contradiction of the will)
State the second formulation
‘So act as to treat humanity, both in your own person, and in the person of every other, always as the same time as an end, never simply as a means’
Explain how utilitarianism fails as far as the second formulation is concerned
One of the problems we encountered with utilitarianism was its dubious stance on human rights. As a relativist theory, all options are on the table. For instance, torturing an innocent would be permissible if it did something like saving lots of lives
What is K’s response to this problem and what has it been called?
K takes the opposite view – certain actions are never permissible. It is this aspect of his philosophy, the so called ‘Humanity Formula’, which has the most enduring influence on western thought
What is the crucial idea behind the second formulation?
The crucial idea here is that people can never be used as a means to an end
How does this have a practical appeal?
There is an intuitive appeal to this idea. This is something deeply unsettling about the idea of someone doing things with or to you, not because they like or value you, but for some other purpose. K recognised this and thought he could explain why we feel negative about things like this. He thinks people feel like this because they are rational beings, and rational beings deserve dignity and respect, and this involves always treating them as an end in and of themselves
Explain the third formulation
‘Act according to the maxims of a member of a merely possible kingdom of ends, legislating in it universally’. This is known as ‘The Kingdom of Ends Formula’; it refers to how we should treat one another in an ideal moral society
For his final formulation of the categorical imperative. K envisions a utopian Kingdom of Ends where all people share the same moral vision, desiring the same goods and sharing the same ends. It build upon the two previous formulations, as the laws the hypothetical members of the kingdom would devise are based on the ‘universal law of nature’ and ‘humanity’ formulas
Hence any moral laws made would be universalisable without contradiction and treat people as ends
This third formulation adds a political component to the theory: he is trying to tell us how society would be governed if people were willing to accept his deontological ethics. Therefore when acting individually, we should imagine whether are action would be acceptable in the hypothetical kingdom in the hope that by doing so, we might bring it closer to becoming a reality
