Kantian ethics

• Immanuel Kant was a rationalist and apart of the enlightenment movement.
• Kant's ethics were deontological (meaning they were focused on the action and not the consequence) and based on idea that humans have a moral duty.
• Kant said humans are seeking an ultimate end called supreme good (summun bonum) where highest amount of virtue with highest amount of happiness but cannot be achieved in this lifetime so must be an afterlife.
• Kant also said that existence of morality proves existence of God however moral law is known through reason and is independent of belief in God.
• A human being is a rational being and this constitutes to our dignity. Every man has equal amount of reason therefore we all will reach the same moral conclusions 
• Autonomy: the belief that humanity are self-directed beings, the centre of our own world, making our own free choices 
• In his search for intrinsic good, Kant thought of “good will”: 

  Good will + duty = moral action 

  He rejected that outcomes or character traits such as courage were intrinsically good because they could be associated with evil. 
• There are two ways of making a moral decision: categorical and hypothetical imperative.
• Hypothetical

  • You have a reason to do one course of action because it is a means to an end 
  • It is conditional 
  • The antecedent part of the hypothetical imperative is based on desire 
  • E.g. If I want to lose weight, I must stop eating cake 
• Categorical:

  • Moral commands based on priori law of reason that applies to everyone 
  • Demands unconditional obedience because it is your duty 
  • E.g. I must not murder 
• Kant says that categorical imperatives are the only way to make good moral decisions and that there are three ways to formulate one:

  1. One should act in such a way that one would will it that one’s action should become universal law. 
  2. One should always act in such a way as to treat fellow beings as an end in themselves and not a means of achieving an end. 
  3. One should act as though you were a legislator in the “kingdom of ends”. 
• Maxims: general principles underly any action. 

  • There are good and bad maxims