KANTIAN ETHICS

Question 1

Kant on morality

Answer 1

Kant wanted to base morality on reason, because this could create a harmonious society where everyone would at least have the potential to agree about morality. If people base morality on different faith, there’s no way to agree.

Question 2

Kant on reason

Answer 2

We can discover a universal moral law through reason and it is our duty to follow it.

Question 3

Ethical clarity

Answer 3

Kantian deontology has precise rules and a clear method for figuring them out which is available to all rational beings. Kantian ethics doesn’t simply force rules upon people from an external power.

Question 4

Autonomy

Answer 4

People can recognize the rationality of its rules through their own reason. This engages the autonomy of the individual in the way required for a civilised democratic society.

Question 5

Kant ignoring the moral value of emotions - Strength

Answer 5

When we act on emotion, our action depends on the way we feel - not our duty.

Question 6

Stocker’s criticism of Kant ignoring emotions

Answer 6

Stocker argues, imagine a friend visiting you while you are in hospital but they said they only came because it was their duty.

Question 7

Bernard’s criticism of Kant’s rejection of emotion

Answer 7

Kantian morality is unnatural and requires “one thought too many”. When doing good, a virtuous person need not be thinking about moral laws. They simply do good out of habit.

Question 8

Aristotle on emotion

Answer 8

We can rationally work on ourselves, trying to develop good emotional habits of behaviour. Aristotle called this cultivating virtue. We can get in control of our emotions, and then they can be relied on to motivate us in moral situations.

Question 9

Kant on consequentialism

Answer 9

We cannot control consequences, so we cannot be responsible for them. So, they cannot be relevant to our moral decision-making.

Question 10

Constant’s axe man example

Answer 10

f a murderer asked us where their victim was, and we knew, Constant argued we should lie. This fits most people’s moral intuitions. Telling the truth cannot be an absolute duty, it seems to depend on the situation.

Question 11

Finding our duty

Answer 11

Establish the maxim (rule), work out if it is a hypothetical or categorical imperative, if categorical then it is our duty to act on it.

Question 12

Hypothetical imperative

Answer 12

An “if-then” statement that is conditional on its ends.

Question 13

Kant on hypothetical imperatives

Answer 13

They are based on inclinations which change and focus on consequences which we can’t predict.

Question 14

Kant absolute moral law quote

Answer 14

“The starry heavens above me and the moral law within me”

Question 15

Three formulations of the categorical imperative

Answer 15

Formula of the law of nature

Formula of the end in itself

Formula of the Kingdom of ends

Question 16

Formula of the law of nature

Answer 16

Universalisation - would you be happy if everyone, everywhere had to do this?

Question 17

Formula of the end in itself

Answer 17

Treat everyone as an ends not a means (not using someone for something else)

Question 18

Formula of the kingdom of ends

Answer 18

Act as if everyone else is acting the same.

Question 19

Phenomenal world

Answer 19

Things we experience and things which make us like other animals.

Question 20

Noumenal world

Answer 20

Our ability to reason according to the moral law - parts of us which make us more like God.

Question 21

Kant quote on the kingdom of the law of nature

Answer 21

“Act that the maxim of your will could always hold at the same time as a universal law”

Question 22

Contradictions in the law of nature

Answer 22

Rules that do not make logical sense - they contradict themselves if applied universally.
Eg I love myself so I’m going to kill myself.

Question 23

Kant quote on the kingdom of ends

Answer 23

“A law making member of a kingdom of ends”

Question 24

Kant quote on the ends in itself

Answer 24

“Act in such a way that you always treat humanity…never simply as a means, but always as and end”

Question 25

Kant quote on Summum Bonum

Answer 25

“practical reason is based on a duty to make the Summum Bonum the object of my will”

Question 26

Three postulates

Answer 26

Freedom - to act out of duty or immorally

Immortality -the Summum Bonum can’t be reached on earth, so must be in the afterlife

God -The afterlife must be provided by someone due to the Summum Bonum being the supreme good.

Question 27

Kant quote on freedom

Answer 27

“We must be capable of being better human beings”

Question 28

Kant on fixed human nature

Answer 28

Meaning there is only one way of reasoning - so reason should lead us to the same categorical imperatives.

Question 29

Maclyntyre on universalisation

Answer 29

You could make a maxim so specific that it would be agreeable universalised.

“Permit me to do what I want whilst prohibiting others from doing what would nullify the action if universalised”

Question 30

Criticism - consequences

Answer 30

Kantian ethics goes against the way humans think - we consider consequences.

Sometimes we break rules/do something wrong to generate a better consequence.

Question 31

Paton’s objection to Kant

Answer 31

Everyone has the ability to reason - however some are so oppressed that they do not have the freedom to practice on these decisions.

Question 32

Foot’s rejection of the categorical imperative.

Answer 32

Moral judgments are not categorical imperatives, but rather are hypothetical imperatives.
There is no basis for the claim that we always have a reason to obey moral rules, so we don’t always have to, meaning moral judgments cannot be categorical.