CHAPTER 7

• Kant views the human person as having a two-fold nature: homo noumenon and homo phenomenon
• Kant's ultimate goal in moral teachings is for the human person to become morally perfect
• Noumenon


  The essence of things, the thing-in-itself, beyond experience
• The human person as a rational moral agent is the sole basis for determining the truth of the categorical imperative
• Phenomenon


  The thing as it appears to the observer, the empirical part of a thing
• Kant believes that the human person as a noumenon is destined to be perfect and should actualize this godlike self by obeying the command of the categorical imperative
• Understanding Kant's categorical imperative


  Discuss in detail the specificity of the categorical imperative and deduce from it the concepts of right and freedom
• Human person


  The foundation of the categorical imperative according to Kant
• The noumenal self tries to actualize its godlike nature as the real self
• Students are expected to understand, articulate, and make use of Kant's moral theory and his theory of right after studying this chapter
• Kant's theory of rights can only be understood through his moral teachings
• Chapter 7 discusses Immanuel Kant's theory of rights expressed through the categorical imperative
• The human person must consider herself as belonging to the intelligible world to attain perfection
• The phenomenal self serves as the springboard for the actualization of the noumenal self
• Applied to humans, homo noumenon is the godlike self, while homo phenomenon is the merely human self
• The categorical imperative is the central philosophical concept in Kant's ethics, commonly understood as an absolute commandment of reason used to evaluate morality
• Everything that exists has two natures: the non-empirical part (noumenon or essence) and the empirical part (phenomenon)
• Morality requires absolute necessity and strict universality, based on an a priori knowledge or principle
• The human person as a rational being must consider herself as belonging to the intelligible world


  If she hopes to attain perfection
• When a medical student cheats while in school just to finish the degree

  She will likely be inclined to act dishonestly to patients and colleagues in the future
• Cheating, for whatever purpose, is unreasonable and morally unacceptable
• Dishonesty in the medical arena has serious consequences in the delivery of care to human life and negatively impacts social values
• Students who cheat may not immediately recognize that their actions are morally wrong because they are blinded by their justifications
• Kant's view of morality

  • Morality is the strict obedience to the categorical imperative, a commitment to the absolute command, an obligation to the law as such
• Morality must not be based on experience, but on an a priori knowledge or principle
• A recent study indicates that nine out of ten college students commit at least one act of dishonesty (in the form of cheating) in a given academic year (Quintos, 2017)
• Students resort to cheating on examinations and academic papers or projects due to desires like passing an entrance examination, keeping financial aid, or graduating
• Tucker: 'The noumenal self tries to actualize its godlike nature as the real self by obeying the dictate of reason through the categorical imperative'
• The human person fails her duty to attain moral perfection when yielding to desires that result in errors
• Cheating while in school could be a predictor of dishonesty in the workplace
• Kant refers to the categorical imperative as the ultimate rational principle of morality
• Kant's Notion of Morality

  • Morality entails a commitment to the absolute command, an obligation to the law as such
• Cheating in academic institutions has become very rampant
• Kant: 'Everyone must admit that law, if it is to hold morally, must imply absolute necessity'
• Practical Reason


  The foundation of morality, determined by reason, leads to an absolute necessity and forms a universal law
• Morality must be based on


  An a priori principle to be binding to all rational beings without exceptions
• A priori knowledge

  • "All bachelors are unmarried"
  • Two plus three is five
  • The whole is always greater than its parts
• A posteriori knowledge

  • "The pain due to appendicitis is intolerable"
  • "The food is delicious"
• Kant: 'That all our knowledge begins with experience there can be no doubt. For how is it possible that the faculty of cognition should be awakened into exercise otherwise than by means of objects which affect our senses, and partly of themselves produce representations, partly arouse our powers of understanding into activity, to compare, to connect, or to separate these, and so to convert the raw materials of our sensuous impressions into a knowledge of objects, which is called experience?'
• Kant distinguishes between speculative (theoretical) and practical employment of reason