Kantian ethics Flashcards
what was kantian ethics in response to?
it was a reaction to Hume’s empiricist ethical anti-realism where he denied that right and wrong existed.
what does basing morality on reason do?
it means that it is not based on subjective desires (against emotivism), but is based on the universal principles of reason - morality is categorical.
what is a test of whether an action is morally right?
whether it could be done to anyone, in any situation - this is called universalizability.
- universal actions are our duty
what does deontological mean?
it means duty-based - kantian ethics is deontological as moral actions depend on doing the right action WITH the right intention.
what is the foundation of a normative theory?
it must be in what is UNCONDITIONALLY GOOD and whatever is conditionally good depends on its goodness on something else - happiness is CONDITIONALLY GOOD on it being deserved
what does will refer to?
will refers to our intention - what would make happiness deserved is that it was achieved by someone doing what is morally right.
what is the good will?
a good will is held by a person who has the right intention when performing his duty
- once we have used reason to figure out our duty, we must act on our duty purely out of a sense of duty to attain a good will
what is the only morally valid motivation?
respect for the moral law
- it is not morally WRONG to act on our desires in accordance with duty but it is not MORALLY RIGHT either.
what is an imperative?
imperative statements are about what we should or ought to do
what are hypothetical imperatives?
hypothetical means conditional
- if you want X, then you should do Y
what are categorical imperatives?
categorical means in all cases
- you should do X
why are hypothetical imperatives not moral?
a moral law discoverable through reason must be UNVIERSAL and it cannot be conditional on anything such as our desires.
- it is because of this that Kant concludes that moral laws involve categorical imperatives
what is the first formulation of the categorical imperative?
ACT ONLY ACCORDING TO THAT MAXIM BY WHICH YOU COULD AT THE SAME TIME WILL IT TO BECOME A UNIVERSAL LAW.
- contradiction in conception
- contradiction in will
what is a maxim?
a maxim is the moral statement of what you want to do.
what is the contradiction in conception?
this means that we should only act on an ethical principle if it is logically possible for everyone to act on it
- the test of universalizability
what is the lying example for the contradiction is conception?
Kant thinks that you have a perfect duty not to lie as it cannot be universalized - if everyone were to lie, there would be no honesty and truth
- willing everyone to lie would be willing the undermining of the concept on which lying depends on its existence.
what is the contradiction in will?
maxims like ‘always refuse help from others’ do not lead to a contraction in conception however they cannot be universalized because they contradict our RATIONAL WILL to achieve ends.
- we may require help from others in our life to achieve our ends.
what is the second formulation of the categorical imperative?
ALWAYS TREAT PERSONS AS AN END, NEVER MERELY AS A MEANS
rational agents have and seek goals called ends - to treat someone as an end contradicts the fact that they have their own ends.
what is the third formulation of the categorical imperative?
this is a reminder to act on the moral law - if everyone followed Kantian ethics, we would live in a KINGDOM OF ENDS - a world of rational beings where everyone was treated as an ends
what is the issue of clashing duties?
OUGHT IMPLIES CAN - we must be capable of doing an action for it to be our duty so if duties clash and one cannot be done it cannot be our duty
- if those duties were obtained through Kant’s formula of the categorical imperative, then Kantian ethics cannot tell us our duty.
what was the example from SARTRE about the issue of clashing duties?
SARTRE used an example of a soldier deciding between going to war or staying home to look after his sick parents
- cannot do both but both are UNIVERSALISABLE and neither treat people as a means.
what is Kant’s response to the issue of clashing duties?
if we think there are clashing duties we haven’t used our reason correctly
- he distinguishes between PERFECT (only one way to do them) and IMPERFECT (multiple ways to fulfil them) duties
how can we use Kant’s response to the issue of clashing duties in response to SARTRE’S example?
you could pay someone else to look after a sick family member or help the war effort by staying at home by working in a factory
- this makes both of these imperfect
