Kant

Question 1

3rd categorical formulation

Answer 1

“systematic union of different rational beings under common law”

Question 2

how did ross revise kant

Answer 2

1. made sure ethic wasn’t based on one standard of morality but multiple prima facie duties
2. prima facie is not absolute so allows for exceptions when duty conflicts
   HEGEL: kant is “too abstract to be pragmatic”
   ross changes this though

Question 3

objections to kant

Answer 3

1. Jean paul sartre and example of a man at war torn between two duties
2. how ross fixes this with prima facie duties
3. emotional realm and Williams
4. SCHOPENHAUER: selfish ethic esp with SB
5. harsh ethic that encourages retribution
6. first formulation of CI doesn’t flag up what is wrong

Question 4

praise of kant’s ethic

Answer 4

SANDEL protects minorities unlike Singer or Util

Ensures universal moral norms

Question 5

whats the ‘summer bonum’

Answer 5

‘real object of our will’

when pure motive coincides with good action; the good thing is done and the doer feels good about it

Question 6

how does Kant define maxims?

Answer 6

‘our personal principles that guide our decisions’

Question 7

what is the will?

Answer 7

our rational ability to make choices and decisions

Question 8

what is the only thing that is good ‘without qualification’?

Answer 8

only ‘good will’, which is good in itself

Question 9

what is the first formulation of the categorical imperative?

Answer 9

‘act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law’

Question 10

what is a contradiction in conception?

Answer 10

the theorised world is logically impossible and cannot logically exist if the maxim is universalised and rationally followed; logical contradiction as concepts e.g. ‘everyone should step’ means concept of ownership is defunct

Question 11

what is a contradiction in will?

Answer 11

where the maxim is not self-contradictory, but we cannot rationally will the world that comes from the said maxim e.g. do not help others in need

Question 12

what is the second formulation of the CI?

Answer 12

‘Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end’

Question 13

what is the third formulation of the CI?

Answer 13

‘act as if you were, through your maxims, a law-making member of a kingdom of ends’

Question 14

Objections to Kant

Answer 14

1. Universality -we could change maxims (Macintyre)
2. Lack of humanity (Hegel)
3. there are conflicts between duties i.e. Sartre’s student
4. Limits human characteristics (Hume: Emotion>Reason +VE)
5. Too abstract - tells only right type action, not what
6. Not everyone has freedom? (Paton)

Question 15

Strengths of Kant

Answer 15

1. no vested interests / bias
2. logical, simple method, CI
3. emphasises equality (all humans can reason)
4. independent of external authority

Question 16

How does Hegel criticise Kant?

Answer 16

Kant overlooks the place of community and special relationships which form the roots of morality, so his theory is cold-hearted as duty is the only motive with moral worth.

Question 17

Quote by Hume on why reason is not supreme guidance so Kant limits human characteristics

Answer 17

‘Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions’

Question 18

What does H.J Paton argue

Answer 18

that Kant’s theory of duty fails if we have no freedom, and ‘we have no independent insight into the alleged necessity for presupposing freedom’

Question 19

Quote Paton 1947

Answer 19

‘even if we hold the moral law and categorical imperative to be apodeictically certain, there still remains the problem of freedom; and if freedom as merely an illusion, this could not but suggest that our belief in moral obligation and moral responsibility must also be an illusion’

Question 20

What does Macintyre say?

Answer 20

You can justify anything using universability

Question 21

Quote Macintyre

Answer 21

‘all I need to do is to characterise the proposed action in such a ways hat the maxim will permit me to do what I want while prohibiting others from doing what would nullify the action if universalised’

Question 22

Sartre quote to illustrate conflict of duty

Answer 22

‘in the case of that student who came to see me, that to whatever ethical system he might appeal, the Kantian or any other, he could find no sort of guidance whatever; he was obliged to invent the law for himself’

Question 23

Peter Vardy’s definition of categorical imperatives

Answer 23

‘Categorical iImperatives are arrived at through practical reason and they are understood as a basis for action’

Question 24

Kant quote on the good will no.1

Answer 24

‘A good will is not good because of what it effects or accomplishes.. it is good through its willing alone - that is, good in itself’

Question 25

Kant quote which opens his ‘Groundwork of the Metaphysics of morals’

Answer 25

‘it is impossible to conceive of anything in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good without qualification, except a good will’

Question 26

Main influence on Kant’s concept of free will / moral responsibility?

Answer 26

Jean-Jacques Rousseau in ‘The Social Contract’: ‘man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains’

Question 27

Bernard williams

Answer 27

1. impartial position Kant wishes to adopt may be possible for factual considerations, but not moral deliberations
2. by abstracting persons from character, Kant misinterprets persons and morality

Question 28

Schpenhauer

Answer 28

Kant’s ethic is concerned over what ought to be done, rather than attempting to interpret what actually happens

Question 29

Nietzche

Answer 29

rejects that god and morality can be known just because we have reason;
thinks the intellect is just another internal drive, an instinct–>thus when we act out of reason it isn’t us being impartial but rather just one of our drives taking over

Question 30

Gerald Jones

Answer 30

SB introduces a moral carrot into Kant’s ethic

Question 31

Hegel

Answer 31

1. Kant’s theory is ‘too abstract to be practical’ (but this is fixed by Ross)
2. Kant’s ethic forces humans into conflict between reason and desire, but it is unnatural to subordinate desire to reason