Kant Flashcards
What is kantianism
Is a deontological approach - the motive for an action determines if it is right or wrong
What makes an action morally praiseworthy
People’s good will is what makes an action morally praiseworthy, not the consequences of an action
What else is morally praiseworthy to Kant
People who act out of duty because they know it’s the right thing to do rather than inclination (they are just doing good people who like to do good things) are more morally praiseworthy
What is the categorical imperative
This is Kants test to see if an action can be morally praiseworthy.
What is the first part of the categorical imperative
He comes up with a maxim- this is like a rule
E.g. Always break your promises
Second step of the categorical imperative
Kant needs to see if it can be universalised (apply to everyone). He does this by checking is it’s a contradiction in conception (if it’s possible to be applied to everyone in every situation) or a contraction in the will ( would it make make sense to Apple to everyone in every situation)
Why does Kant say all humans are rational
We have the ability to make our own decisions
What is the end in itself formulation
If you use prior, trick then it manipulate then, in order to get something out of them, you are not letting them make their own decisions. You are using them as a means to an end ( using them to achieve you end goals. This is not okay but you can use people to help you as long as they know they are doing it (and end as well) they need to be aware of your end goal
Criticisms of Kant - the problem with motives
1.problem with motive- it doesn’t make sense to completely ignore consequences as they are really important. And some motives just do work, you would praise someone for them hurting another person. How can we tell other people’s motives. Why shouldn’t food people acting out of inclination be praised?
Criticisms of Kant- the problem of competing duties
What if you have a duty to do one thing and a duty to do another, but you can’t do both
E.g. The enquiring murder- what if you have a duty to protect your friends and a duty not to lie. Your friend is running firm a murderer and comes to your house to hide. The murderer turns up and asks if you know where your friend is. What do you do?
Criticisms of Kant- the problem with potentially misguided perceptions of duty
Sometimes we follow our duty and it’s not morally right
E.g. The nazis in ww2 would have see it as their duty to kill the Jews because their government convinced them it was the correct thing to do, but this is obviously very wrong.
