The categorical imperative

Question 1

According to Kant what are we looking for?

Answer 1

A supreme principle of morality, a principle that we can use to appraise other principles

Question 2

What are maxims?

Answer 2

Rules of life

Question 3

What does this supreme principle need to tell us?

Answer 3

Whether rules are, morally speaking, right or wrong

Question 4

What is morality for Kant?

Answer 4

A set of universal commands

Question 5

Hypothetical imperatives

Answer 5

Commands of reason which are hypothetical. They represent the practical necessity of a possible action

Question 6

Categorical imperatives

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What kind of commands does Kant understand morality to be?

Answer 7

Categorical

Question 8

Why is morality categorical and not hypothetical?

Answer 8

Morality commands categorically, absent of other purpose because categorical imperatives are able to reflect the essential good in the action

Question 9

What mode of investigation did Kant adopt?

Answer 9

A priori

Question 10

Why use a priori investigation rather than a posteriori investigation?

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Kant’s conclusion

Answer 11

Categorical imperatives are possible and discoverable a priori

Question 12

Formula of universal law

Answer 12

Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it will become a universal law

Question 13

What is the purpose of the categorical imperative?

Answer 13

To identify a supreme norm by which we appraise

Question 14

According to Kant, how does morality apply?

Answer 14

Universally

Question 15

What does it mean for morality to apply universally?

Answer 15

Holds for all relevant members of the moral community

Question 16

To generate the view that all categorical imperatives are morally permissible all maxims must be…

Answer 16

Universalizable

Question 17

Universality of morality

Answer 17

All members of the moral community are beholden to moral prescriptions

Question 18

Universalizability of moral maxims

Answer 18

To be morally permissible, all maxims must be capable of being universalized

Question 19

You ought not to act through any maxim which…

Answer 19

You cannot will that it should become a universal law

Question 20

Formula of Universal Law

Answer 20

1. Formulate a maxim
2. Recast that maxim as a universal law
3. Consider whether your maxim is conceivable
4. Ask yourself whether you would/could rationally will that such a principle would hold

Question 21

If your action fulfils the formula of universal law

Answer 21

Your action is morally permissible

Question 22

Example of lying promises

Answer 22

Lying promises are non-universalizable and therefore morally impermissible

Question 23

Mill’s interpretation of Kant’s formula of the universal law

Answer 23

What we ought to do is determined by a set of rules that could be willed as a universal law

Question 24

Kant disagrees with Mill’s interpretation, Kant argues instead it is closer too…

Answer 24

What we ought to do is determined by that set of rules which could be willed by everyone without practical contradiction

Question 25

What do Kant and rule consequentialists agree on?

Answer 25

Morality is properly understood as a system of rules

Question 26

How do Kant and rule consequentialists differ?

Answer 26

Their understanding of what makes a rule a rule of morality

Question 27

Flaw of the formula of universal law?

Answer 27

Bad things could be universalized if everyone chose to accept them

Question 28

The second categorical imperative

Answer 28

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

Question 29

How does the second categorical imperative relate to the first?

Answer 29

They are logically entailed and interderivable