The Quick and Dirty Kant

1
The Quick and Dirty Kant

• Duty Trumps Desire
• Golden rule in fancy form

2
Immanuel Kant, 1724-1804

• Ethics of Duty
• Categorical Imperative
• Reason, not situation
• Motive, not results

3
2 questions Kant asked

• What can you know?
• What should you do?

4
A few contrasts

• Aristotle
• Teleology purpose, aim, goal
• Happiness, eudaimonia
• What is good
• Empirical foundation what you can observe, study
  the models
• A posteriori (after)

• Kant
• Deontology the study of duty
• What is right
• A priori foundation thinking, reasoning, what
  you can know before observation

5
What can we know?

• The mind is not a blank slate, absorbing the
  world as it is.
• More like a grid with categories that sort what
  we experience.
• Trapped in space and time
• So there are some things we cant know.

6
What can and cant we know?

• Theoretical knowledge
• Not Metaphysics, the structure of the universe.
• Yes Empirical knowledge science
• Yes Transcendental Knowledge the limits of
  human reason (grid)
• Practical Knowledge
• Ethics a priori (Kant)
• Empirical (Aristotle)

7
What is important about humans?

• Freedom, abilities to make choices Agents
• Contrast to animals, who live by instinct alone
• Contrast to perfectly rational beings, who live
  by pure reason, in perfect accord with moral
  principles
• We are between two worlds rational and
  non-rational, able to act by reason, also able to
  be swayed.

8
The Fundamental Divide

• Beings with reason
• Ends in themselves
• Human

• Beings without reason
• Can be means
• Buildings, rocks, trees
• Creatures without reason

9
Kants foundations of ethics

• Fundamental moral principle
• Known by reason alone
• Principle applies to all humans equally
• Not circumstances
• Not relativist
• Moral actions are obligatory what duty requires

10
What is the good?

• Aristotle
• Good is a goal we seek
• Happiness (fulfillment, eudaimonia) is the goal
• Ethics tells you where to go (telos) and how to
  get there (virtue).

• Kant
• A Good Will
• One who is worthy deserves to be happy
• Not action itself, or the result, but motivation
• Good or moral person not dependent on
  circumstances, but on motivation.

11
Purpose of practical reason

• Aristotle To lead us to happiness
• Kant To make us worthy to be happy to
  establish the good will in us

12
Is an action moral?Depends on its motivation

• Action in accord with duty
• Honesty is the best policy
• Ethics is good for business

• Action for the sake of duty
• Deep respect for moral law
• Eg Love your neighbor as yourself not like
  them, but acts of kindness from duty, obligation.

13
What motivates right action

• Aristotle
• Reason alone cant motivate (important but not
  sufficient)
• Also need desire that which we are pulled toward

• Kant
• Reverence (deep respect), not from the outside,
  but self-produced by reason for moral law duty,
  binding on all

14
What is the duty?
15
Two kinds of lawEvery action has a law behind it

• Hypothetical imperative
• If-then
• If you want to get to Nashville, then drive on
  I-40
• If you want to have friends, be kind to them

• Categorical imperative
• Regardless of situation
• Everyone acts by maxims
• Always tell the truth
• Never upset your mother
• Have a good time in life

16
Two formulations of the categorical imperative
for moral duty

• Act only according to that maxim by which you can
  at the same time will that it should become a
  universal law.
• Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your
  own person or in that of another, always as an
  end and never as a means only.

17
Formal tests of actions to see if they are moral
from a good will

• Think of a machine put in maxim, give results
• Can the action be universally willed?
• Conceived of as a universal law
• Willed as a universal law
• On reason, not necessarily on results

18
Examples

• Lying
• Suicide
• Self-interest
• Are there exceptions? Yes, but only if they can
  be universally willed

19
2nd formulation Means and Ends

• Kants contribution to Human Respect
• Treat people as ends, not as means
• Because they are also free agents, able to make
  choices
• Allow freedom of choice
• Give sufficient information to enable a choice.

20
Kants respect has to do with the freedom of the
will

• See in medical issues
• Tuskeegee syphilis studies
• Medical consent forms
• Research standards
• Sexual ethics

21
The heritage of Kant

• The admirability of acting from duty
• Evenhandness of morality
• Respect of persons
• Focus on rights and justice
• Rawls (read in economic justice section)
  fairness what policies would we choose, if we
  dont know how it would turn out for us?

22
Some critique of Kant
23
Other possible objects of respect that Kant does
not consider

• Feelings, emotions
• The dead
• Animals
• Natural world

24
What Kant may have missed

• Neglect of moral integration
• Little nuance of situation, history
• Lacks emphasis on role of consequences
• Doesnt address reality of multiple conflicting
  duties

25
And a bit more critique

• Duty can be misconstrued as following orders,
  obeying law, external authority
• Moral minimalism tells you the minimum
  requirements, not how to make the world a better
  place
• Alienated from feelings bias toward depressed,
  cold action, over motivation from love or feeling