The categorical imperative Flashcards
According to Kant what are we looking for?
A supreme principle of morality, a principle that we can use to appraise other principles
What are maxims?
Rules of life
What does this supreme principle need to tell us?
Whether rules are, morally speaking, right or wrong
What is morality for Kant?
A set of universal commands
Hypothetical imperatives
Commands of reason which are hypothetical. They represent the practical necessity of a possible action
Categorical imperatives
Commands of reason which command categorically, those that represent the necessity of a possible action. The action is as objectively necessary of itself, it requires no reference to another end
What kind of commands does Kant understand morality to be?
Categorical
Why is morality categorical and not hypothetical?
Morality commands categorically, absent of other purpose because categorical imperatives are able to reflect the essential good in the action
What mode of investigation did Kant adopt?
A priori
Why use a priori investigation rather than a posteriori investigation?
In order to identify moral requirements which are unconditionally necessary, that hold irrespective of circumstance, we must use a priori investigation as empirical investigations are more conditional
Kant’s conclusion
Categorical imperatives are possible and discoverable a priori
Formula of universal law
Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it will become a universal law
What is the purpose of the categorical imperative?
To identify a supreme norm by which we appraise
According to Kant, how does morality apply?
Universally
What does it mean for morality to apply universally?
Holds for all relevant members of the moral community
To generate the view that all categorical imperatives are morally permissible all maxims must be…
Universalizable
Universality of morality
All members of the moral community are beholden to moral prescriptions
Universalizability of moral maxims
To be morally permissible, all maxims must be capable of being universalized
You ought not to act through any maxim which…
You cannot will that it should become a universal law
Formula of Universal Law
- Formulate a maxim
- Recast that maxim as a universal law
- Consider whether your maxim is conceivable
- Ask yourself whether you would/could rationally will that such a principle would hold
If your action fulfils the formula of universal law
Your action is morally permissible
Example of lying promises
Lying promises are non-universalizable and therefore morally impermissible
Mill’s interpretation of Kant’s formula of the universal law
What we ought to do is determined by a set of rules that could be willed as a universal law
Kant disagrees with Mill’s interpretation, Kant argues instead it is closer too…
What we ought to do is determined by that set of rules which could be willed by everyone without practical contradiction
What do Kant and rule consequentialists agree on?
Morality is properly understood as a system of rules
How do Kant and rule consequentialists differ?
Their understanding of what makes a rule a rule of morality
Flaw of the formula of universal law?
Bad things could be universalized if everyone chose to accept them
The second categorical imperative
So act that you use humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, aways at the same time as an end, never merely as a means
How does the second categorical imperative relate to the first?
They are logically entailed and interderivable
