Kantian Ethics

Question 1

What was true enlightenment for Kant

Answer 1

For him true enlightenment is about living according to our own unfettered reason, a state of true autonomy (the belief we are self directed things and the centre of our own worlds and making our own free choices) and not to live unthinkingly by the dictates of others

Question 2

Heteronymous

Answer 2

Ones life that I’d not fully their own

Question 3

What does Kant say about goals

Answer 3

He says ‘A goal is an object of free choice’

Question 4

How can you summarise Kant’s argument about goals

Answer 4

We know we have goals which we make for ourselves and we know ourselves to be the ones who both choose these goals and decide not to achieve the. This makes us freely choosing persons and from this we can see we are autonomous

Question 5

For him why are there errors in moral thinking

Answer 5

He thinks errors in moral thinking come from heteronymous approaches like obedience to moral laws laid out by others.

Question 6

What did Kant believe was the only moral law we should follow

Answer 6

That which is knowable by (pure) reason and for that reason to flourish it must be absolutely free of coercion and only in that way can it work as pure reason

Question 7

What does reason give us the ability to do

Answer 7

It gives is the ability to reflect on ourselves and in ourselves we find awareness of what needs to be done. Reason allows us to recognise the centrality of duty

Question 8

What does Kant mean by duty

Answer 8

He means doing what we ought to do as we have a sense of obligation to perform certain actions like telling the truth, obeying legitimate instructions and doing good

Question 9

What is Kant’s view on free will

Answer 9

He believes we all have free will and therefore we should use this free will in the best way possible which means to use it for good

Question 10

What problem does Kant identify with trying to use free will for good

Answer 10

That we do not not know how people will react in the future and whether actions have the results we intend

Question 11

How does Kant look to resolve the problem of free will

Answer 11

He argues that what matters is that we should will the good regardless of the outcome

Question 12

What is the only good thing in Kant’s view and what quote backs this up

Answer 12

Kant argues the only good thing is good will. ‘There is no possibility at all of thinking of anything in the world or outside of it that can be considered good without qualification except good will’. He believed at best incidents can be incidentally good but good will is never incidentally good rather always good irrespective of outcome

Question 13

What example does Kant give for something that is incidentally good

Answer 13

Suppose a shopkeeper is honest in all his dealing and never shorts weight or charges extortionate prices he might do this because it is good for business so that he retains customers and in this case the shopkeeper is doing his duty because it will lead to good results achieving the right outcome. He is doing what he should but it isn’t praiseworthy as he is honest because it it his duty and for no other reason

Question 14

What can Kant’s view be described as

Answer 14

Deontological - a theory whereby the goodness of an act is not dependent on the outcome but the act itself

Question 15

Does Kant completely disregard outcomes

Answer 15

He doesn’t because in order to determine ones duty one does think of outcome

Question 16

What name can be given to this deontological theory

Answer 16

An absolutist theory as the command to do ones duty is invariable

Question 17

What does Kant acknowledge about people’s goals in life

Answer 17

That we have various goals and they aren’t necessarily shared by others and aren’t distinctively moral for example the goal of becoming a lawyer. There is no moral obligation to become this

Question 18

What is a hypothetical imperative

Answer 18

He draws back on the example of wanting to become a lawyer, I would have to take certain steps like studying law and sitting exams and getting into university. These things I am obliged to do are imperatives

Question 19

What marks a hypothetical imperative

Answer 19

The grammar ‘if…then…’ tells me what I must do to achieve certain goals and this marks the hypothetical imperative

Question 20

What name does Kant give to that which I must do

Answer 20

Categorical imperative

Question 21

What is the categorical imperative

Answer 21

That which I and everyone else must do. In Kant’s view this is striving to be good, reason insists I must have good will and that this is absolute and exception less and is not dependent on what I wish and isn’t different for other people

Question 22

What does the categorical imperative consist of

Answer 22

Three forms

Question 23

What is the first form of the categorical imperative sometimes referred to

Answer 23

The principle of universalisation

Question 24

What is the first form of the categorical imperative explained by Kant

Answer 24

He argues we should act on a maxim that we are willing to follow as a law and at the same time have that law apply to everyone

Question 25

What example does Kant give for the first form of the categorical imperative

Answer 25

Suppose I want to steal for my neighbour I should think whether I want my neighbour to steal from me and whether I want everyone to steal from their neighbours. A rational person would say no and therefore I shouldn’t steal from my neighbour

Question 26

What problem is posed to the first form of the categorical imperative

Answer 26

Kant uses a narrow range of examples to develop his point, deception, theft, suicide, laziness, charity and cruelty to animals

Question 27

What objection can be posed from the problem with the first form of the categorical imperative

Answer 27

If I marry my wife surely I do not wish the whole world to marry my wife, I may not even be sure I want the whole adult world to marry and I wouldn’t want someone like joe smith hung in 1915 for the murder of three wives to marry. So by Kant’s logic to marry would be immoral because I am not willing to encourage everyone to marry

Question 28

What further objection to the first form of the categorical imperative is posed by Aquinas

Answer 28

Not every action can be universalised and remain moral, he gives the example of debt ‘it would be harmful to repay debt if it was then used to wage war on one’s country’. The same can be said about telling the truth, should I still tell the truth if I know someone will be hurt because of it.

Question 29

What is the second form of the categorical imperative sometimes referred to

Answer 29

The principle of the priority of ends

Question 30

What is the second form of the categorical imperative

Answer 30

Argues we should treat everyone’s as ends rather than means

Question 31

What example does Kant give for the second form of the categorical imperative

Answer 31

If a business owner is solely interested in the profits of his company then he will do things like drive worker’s wages down and not care about them and simply think of them as tools, in this way they are being used as means and not ends

Question 32

What is an example of a problem drawn from the second form of the categorical imperative

Answer 32

In 1941 world war 2 the Enigma codes of the Germans were broken and Churchill uncovered that they were planning to bomb Covent Garden. Churchill was then left with an impossible decision of deciding whether to move everyone from the area and therefore alerting the Germans that their code had been broken which would lead to many more casualties in the long term as they changed the code. Or to leave the people in the area and keep the knowledge they have of the Enigma codes. In this example if the people had been moved out of the area then the significant number of later casualties are being treated as means as the ends for the people that got moved. If the people were left there then they act as means as the ends for the later casualties

Question 33

What is the third form of the categorical imperative

Answer 33

This argues that ‘every rational being must act if through his universalised maxim he were always a legislating member in the universal kingdom of ends’. What he means is we should act as if our actions made laws for everyone else and everyone else acted in the same way

Question 34

What example is given of the third form of the categorical imperative

Answer 34

If I give my aunt a present I should do so with the acceptance that I am committing to the idea that everyone should give their aunt’s presents

Question 35

What does Kant think of personal immortality

Answer 35

He believes in personal immortality and that after we die we live on in the afterlife

Question 36

How many postulates are there for Kant and what are they

Answer 36

For Kant there are three postulates of practical reason: that we are free beings, that we are immortal and that god exists

Question 37

What is a postulate

Answer 37

a principle so obvious it needs no further explanation and it can be taken as an assumption

Question 38

How does he explain his first postulate (we are free beings)

Answer 38

For him freedom is connected to his view that we are fully rational beings and know what our duty is therefore when we make a moral decision we acknowledge our freedom

Question 39

What is his logic for immortality and existence of god

Answer 39

• rationally perfect virtue ought to be rewarded by perfect happiness
• The combination of perfect happiness and perfect goodness is the ‘summum bonum’
• therefore because summum bonum ought to be achieved it can be achieved
• this is not achieved in this life as good things can happen to bad people and bad things to the good
• if it is not achievable in this life it must be in the next which means we are immortal
• if summum bonum exists in the next life there must be someone to provide it and that someone is god

Question 40

What is true virtuosity in Kant’s view

Answer 40

Kant argues that an immortal reward ought to follow a virtuous life but to be truly virtuous we should be it for its own sake not for the reward because then we are not truly virtuous

Question 41

What controversy arises around Kant’s logic for immortality and god

Answer 41

Controversy is centred around the assumption that ought implies can. If I told you ought to be kind to your mother and you had no mother the common we would be nonsense

Question 42

What is the counter argument for the controversy around the assumption that ought implies can

Answer 42

In Kant’s moral argument there is a different use of the word ought. It is an ought of what should exist not the ought of duty as ought has many meanings. If I say they ought to be recompensed I am expressing a wish and not saying that they will receive justice

Question 43

Objection 1 to Kantian ethics (duty)

Answer 43

If we should do the right thing because it is our duty and for no other reason and if there is no direct moral merit then giving to charity would not be true in itself and rather be cold charity because the giver is no giving with pleasure for that would not be truly virtuous but this then takes away from the act of charity in itself because charity it no just that something is given but how it is given, with a generous heart.

Question 44

Quote from Aristotle in support of objection 1

Answer 44

‘It is not enough to do the right and to be truly moral one must do so with the right attitude’

Question 45

Objection 2 to Kant (universe)

Answer 45

Kant’s attitude to the universe presupposes that it is a rational entity. It may be rational to think that virtue is rewarded and that everyone is rewarded and is capable of rational behaviour but this is not necessarily always the case. The world may just be here by brute fact and without any reason and what ought to be may not necessarily be