Kantian Ethics

Question 1

give a general explanation of Kantian ethics:

Answer 1

• this approach is deontological, focusing one one’s actions and intentions instead of the consequences
• KANT believed humans seek an ultimate end (summum bonum), a state in which human virtue and happiness are united
• all humans have the ability to reason, and buying our reason we can work out our duty
• he believed there exists an objective moral law that our reason can access: “two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe…the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me”

Question 2

what did KANT say about moral knowledge?

Answer 2

he said that moral knowledge is gained by pure reason, not sense experience (this contrasts directly with utilitarianism)