Kant Flashcards
Copernican revolution
- Only know the world as it appears to us
- Our minds are key to understanding the world, reason and logic are crucial
Human nature
- Animals and concern about others are basic levels
- We are rational beings who understand and appreciate the inherent value of human life
describe kant’s ethical system
- Kant is deontological and is concerned with duty (Bentham’s utilitarianism is teleological)
- “Functions of one’s human nature”
- Act morally is our duty not love inclination or compassion (sense of removal in hedonic calculus in utilitarianism)
- “Ought to” - possibility, you KAN(t) do it
- Moral statements are prescriptive —> should prescribe what you should or shouldn’t do
- Tried to make ethical system that is secular and isn’t open to the subjectivity of religion
Good will and duty
- Highest good = good will = duty
- Duty is to perform actions that are morally forbidden
- Similar to synderesis rule, but instead of doing good to achieve fellowship with God, but just because it is your duty and that is reason enough
- Duty is good in itself, not for consequences
- We are moral for the sake of duty not because of emotion
- Duty and reason can prevent us from being ruled by emotions, and can help us make good moral ethical decisions
- Emotions distract and cloud us
summum bonum
- Greatest good, virtue and happiness united
- Humans seek the ultimate end but - Kant’s rejection of theological arguments for the existence of God
He believes morality leads to god
- Cannot reach summum bonum in one lifetime and needs to achieve in afterlife
- Existence of afterlife suggests existence of god
- Links with Buddhism and idea of merit making for karmic merit an a better rebirth
- ‘Two things fill the mind ever new…the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me’
- Move from logic, subject of criticisms
moral law
- Objective, known through reason
- Moral laws exist and are binding
- Moral statements are a priori synthetic (do not need experience, but do need testing)
- Statements of fact are a priori analytic or a posteriori synthetic
- Ethical statements are knowable through reason (not sensation or experience) and may or may not be true
the categorical imperative
- Help us know what actions are obligatory and which are forbidden
- I ought to do x
- Hypothetical imperatives is not moral, while categorical imperatives are
- CI has no reference to desires or needs
what are the three parts of the categorical imperative
- universal law
- treat humans as ends themselves
- act as if you live in a kingdom of ends
universal law
- ”do not act on any principle that cannot be universalised”
- Applied to all situations and all rational beings without exception
- An action that is right has to be right for everyone
- A lie always harms someone, if not the liar then humankind
treat humans as ends themselves
- ”never merely as a means but always at the same time as an end”
- Do not us humans for another purpose as we are highest point of creation due to reason
- All humans are equal and should have same moral protection
- Duty to develop our own perfection
- Seek happiness provided it is within the law and allows freedom for others
- Not promote one person’s happiness if that happiness prevents someone else happiness
Utilitarianism does not see humans as individuals in the same way - minority disregarded
act as if you live in a kingdom of ends
- ”act as if you were through your maxim, a lawmaking member of a kingdom of ends”
- Act as if you and others were treating each other as ends
- Don’t create a maxim that would create an intolerable society
- Assume everyone else lives the same as you
freedom
- All humans are free to make rational choices and distinguishing us from animals
- Free to do duty and follow categorical imperative, using reason
- Truest and best forms of moral decisions do not include religion
- Do not need to do things out of fear of God etc, as it taints your ability to make decisions using reason, duty and impact on others
kant versus bentham ethical system
BENTHAM
teleological
- Utilitarianism
- Act utilitarian
- Relativity with hedonic calculus
- Principle of utility - greatest happiness for the greatest number
- Pleasure and pain as ‘sovereign pain’
KANT
deontological
- Categorical imperative
- Moral duty
- Absolutes with universal law
- Each person should be treated as an ends not a means
- Duty is our motivator, and we do good just because we should
kant and bentham on lying
- Bentham is teleological (Hedonic calculus) and Kant is deontological (categorical imperative)
- Bentham would say lying is ok if it maximises happiness for the majority
- Kant would say that lying is never permissible as it cannot become a universal law, and lying reduces others’ free will to make decisions - Bentham says that pain and pleasure motivate us, while Kant says we are bound by duty
- Bentham would say we would lie if it promoted our pleasure and reduced our pain eg for saving our lives
- Kant says we have a duty to never lie, and this should be upheld despite how it impacts us as individuals - Bentham focuses on maximising happiness for the majority, while Kant says that ever person should be treated as an ends not a means
- Bentham is relativist while Kant is more absolutist
how is kant compatible with religion
- sanctity - treating people as ends not means
- In Buddhism, cannot reach enlightenment in one life, same as summum bonum
- Categorical imperative are commands we follow regardless, similar to Gods absolute rules in DCT
- Good will - intentions
- Similar to NML, use of reason but NML is religious
- Kant accepted that there was a God and morality leads to God
