Kant and Rights Theorists

• Kant's philosophy on goodwill and categorical imperative - is rooter on using a person's ability to reason.
• Immanuel Kant - A german philosopher (1724-1804) whose philosophy provided answers to the following:

  • what can I know?
  • what should I do?
  • what may I hope
• transcendental idealism - which differentiates what we can experience versus what we cannot experience; we can only have knowledge of things we can experience.
• Kant believes that the sense of morality of humans do not necessarily come from a supreme force of God. In order to determine right from wrong, we have to use reason.
• A maxim - serves as a basis or principle on how and why we act. It is similar to an unwritten rule book which humans ascribe to.

  Example.

  • if we need money, we work hard.
• The are two types of maxim:

  1. Subjective - Hypothetical imperative; usually benefits the person.
  2. Objective - categorical imperative; based on reason.
• Hypothetical Imperative - conditional commands based on your "Relevant desire."
• Categorical Imperative - A universal ethical principle which is unconditional, objective, and rationally necessary.
• Kant formulated The Categorical Imperative (CI) which believes that there is a supreme principle of morality.
• Deontological moral theory - which says that how we judge our actions as either right or wrong is not dependent on the consequences, but on whether our actions fulfill our duty. CI Determines our duties
• Motivation - what caused you to do the action determines whether you are good or bad.
• Categorical Imperative - believes that there is a supreme principle of morality. Some of its formulation are: The universalizability principle, and the formula of humanity.