ETHICS/PREFINAL-KANTIAN ETHICS

• Kantian Ethics


  Ethical judgments are based on reason alone, not feelings even serve as obstructions to our discernment of right and wrong. His ethical theory instead bases moral judgments on

  reason alone. Reason, for him, is what deems an action ethical or otherwise
• Goodwill


  • It is the highest good and the condition of all other goods
  • It is intrinsically good, the only thing which is good without qualification
  • It is good in itself, even if it accomplishes nothing
• Good person/person of good will


  One who acts from a sense of duty, exhibiting goodwill even in the face of difficulty
• Rights Theory


  Governments are entrusted by citizens to create laws for protection, and cannot infringe on the rights promised to citizens
• Examples of rights based ethics

  • The right to life
  • The right to liberty
  • The right to pursue happiness
  • The right to freely practice a religion of choice
  • The right to express ideas or opinions with freedom as an individual
  • The right to come together and meet in order to achieve goals
  • The right to work
  • The right to marry
  • The right to bear children
  • The right to free education
  • The right to be treated as equal to others
  • The right to personal privacy
  • The right to own property
• Legal rights


  Rights found within existing legal codes, enjoy recognition and protection of the law
• Moral rights Rights that exist prior to and independently from legal rights, not dependent on actions of jurists and legislators Moral rights, in plain contrast, are rights that exist prior to and independently from

  their legal counterparts. The existence and validity of a moral right is not deemed to be dependent

  upon the actions of jurists and legislators
• Legal and moral rights are practically related but not the same
• Human rights are best thought of as being both moral and legal rights
• Rights Based Ethics


  A broad moral theory in which Kant's principle of rights theory is included
• Concept of rights based ethics


  There are some rights, both positive and negative, that all humans have based only on the fact that they are human
• Rights


  • Can be natural or conventional