Kant essay

Question 1

intro?

Answer 1

• Influenced by 13/14th century renaissance, Galeleo critique of pure reason as we are not the centre of the universe (Sapere Aude)
• deist (believed God couldn’t be on earth as we live in the phenomenal whilst God lives in the noumena (doesn’t view God as the abrahamic God)
• Deontological,based on duty – an action can only be moral if it is motivated by a sense of duty and its maxim may be rationally willed a universal,objective law
• supreme principle of morality is a principle of rationality ‘principle’ dubbed as the categorical imperative making any immoral actions also irrational as they go against the categorical imperative
• The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals but later developed in later works such as the critique of pure reason

✅O Neills and Rawls, Hobbes, Lockes and Aquinas
❌

Question 2

duty AO1?

Answer 2

• Goodwill,the only truly good things, ‘goodwill shines like a precious jewel’ all other things are qualifications/they change (eg more courageous)
• ‘nothing can be good without qualification,expect a good will
• Duties not self interest
• The duty has to be motivated by goodwill
  ➡️ Eg it would not be your duty to follow the Jim Crow laws in Southern America as as the actions of duty from these laws are morally despicable and not from goodwill and respect for such laws could hardly be seen as valuable

Question 3

duty AO2?

Answer 3

✅
- All other things do change as they are based on emotions ,unfair to base our ethics on changing emotions
- Inclinations change daily, not just to make moral decisions with it
➡️ Eg one day we may feel generous and donate to charity but the next decide not to,this it not a rational way to make decisions
- rational
- Not motivated by a prospective outcome but by the mere conformity of our wills to law

❌
- Presuming everyone has good will inside them?
- Putting duty above feelings is cold + inhumane, Hume says duty is ‘a slave to the passions.’

Question 4

imperatives AO1?

Answer 4

• Categorical imperative, virtue of applying to us unconditionally regardless of any desires
• Hypothetical imperatives, willing an end involves more than desiring; it requires actively choosing or committing to the end

Question 5

imperatives AO2?

Answer 5

✅
- If you follow the categorical imperatives then you cant be held accountable
- Easy to follow + would lead to ‘perfect’ society eg kingdom of ends
➡️ lies can kill eg lies on Fox News about cove

• Values the person and each situation differently (helps people know how to achieve goals)

❌
- Bad people exist and wouldn’t follow (only works if everyone follows)
- Lying can be good eg eg in the war with the enigma code which was lied about but ultimately helped us defeat the Nazis in the war
- Subjective as people don’t agree on outcomes

Question 6

universality principle AO1?

Answer 6

• act only in accordance to the maxims that you can will that it should become universal laws without contradiction
• if so then your action is morally permissible

Question 7

universality principle AO2?

Answer 7

➡️ O Neills and Rawls take this formulation to to summarise a procedure for decision making;formulate a maxim as a universal law and consider whether your maxim is conceivable in the real world and whether you would, or could, rationally will to act on your maxim in such a world
❌
- very hard to universalise
- ignore cultural relavitism

Question 8

3 postulates AO1?

Answer 8

• we have free will, if not we wouldn’t have the responsibility to choose right or wrong and thus no moral responsibility
• there is an afterlife
• that god exists, must be a God who assure justice is achieved

Question 9

3 postulates AO2?

Answer 9

✅
- Appeals to concept of reason and duty makes it impartial and less prone to bias
❌
- Too abstract and theoretical, only offer solutions based on a hypothetical kingdom of ends ➡️ cannot work in the real world where people act in an immoral way and we have to respond
- Doesn’t help when there are two conflicting duties
- Better at showing what we ought to do rather than what we should do

Question 10

scholars/stories supporting Kant?

Answer 10

✅
- Galele critique of pure reason, we are not the centre of the universe (Kant tries to answer)
- would not be duty to follow Jim Crow laws as the actions not from goodwill
- axe murder, tell the truth and you won’t die
- lies about covid on Fox News led to people not getting the vaccine and dying
- O Neills and Rawls take the formulation to summarise a procedure when making decisions

Question 11

scholars/stories against Kant?

Answer 11

❌
- Hume says reason is ‘a slave to the passions’
- in the war people lied about the enigma code but this ultimately helped to win against the Nazis (sometimes have to go against hypothetical imperatives to create long term good)
- GE Moore is hostile to Kants rationalist theory that fundamental ethical truths are truth of reason