philosophy

• Kantianism


  Doing Good for its own Sake
• Virtue & Happiness


  Faring Well & Doing Right
• The Good Will


  Hypothetical & Categorical Imperatives, Pure Practical Reason & the Moral Law, Universalizability Test
• Immanuel Kant: '"Human reason is troubled by questions that it cannot dismiss, but also cannot answer"'
• Immanuel Kant: '"Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe […] the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me"'
• Faring Well and Doing Right


  (for the Greeks) amounted to the same thing
• Modern ways of thinking

  Draw a distinction between the most desirable or happiest life and the worthiest or most virtuous human life
• Deontological ethical theories


  Emphasize duty of obligation, and look at whether an action adheres to moral rules rather than its consequences
• Divine command theory


  Holds that an action is obligatory (or prohibited) simply by virtue of the commands of God
• The distinction between the two concepts (faring well and doing right) became prominent in 18th century Europe
• According to Nietzsche, Christianity introduced a deep break from the Ancient world


  By insisting that the poor and the meek can lead blessed lives, conversely that it is possible for the rich and powerful to stand condemned
• For Aristotle, the deprivation of both social and material benefits in this life is not conducive to the good life
• For Plato, there seems to be the occasional hint that such benefits do not matter as much as Aristotle claims that they do
• Socrates holds that good people "interested in their true welfare and faced with the choice of either doing or suffering evil, would opt for the latter rather than the former"
• Jesus: '"What shall it profit a man […] if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"'
• If we hold the view that Faustus LOST at the end of the day, it simply cannot be based on MATERIAL worth and POWER, because those he possessed abundantly
• The good that Faustus loses out on, and the evil he brings upon himself, must be of quite a different order
• There must be a difference in kind and not in merely degree between the sorts of good and evil that are brought into question by the case of Faust
• We must elaborate a distinction between senses of the expression of 'the good life'
• If we are going to hold the view that Faust's loss is linked to his present rather than his future life, we need to know that the MATERIALLY best life is not the MORALLY best life, and that there is more to COMMAND morality
• The task of moral philosophy according to Kant


  To discover how we are able to arrive at principles of behaviour that are binding upon all humanity
• Kant's book The Groundwork to the Metaphysics of Morals aims at laying out the fundamental, rational character of moral thought and action
• Material benefits and personal talents may be used well or badly so they cannot constitute the fundamental principle of good and evil
• The good will


  Good not because of what it causes or accomplishes, not because of its usefulness in the attainment of some set purpose, but alone because of the willing, that is to say, it is good of itself
• Even if the charity worker feels GUILTY, she is NOT RESPONSIBLE for the tragic outcome
• If I INTENTIONALLY wish someone harm and expose them to it but through sheer luck it turns out well and becomes both WEALTHY and CHARITABLE, it does not mean that I did the right thing
• Success is not a moral measurement according to Kant
• Kant thinks that MOTIVATIONS of which we approve do not themselves carry any MORAL WORTH

  This arises from INCLINATION
• Kant's paradigm: The Happy / Sad Man


  When someone performs an action solely because it is right, then for the first time their action has genuine moral worth
• Inclinations cannot be commanded, only actions can
• Hypothetical Imperatives


  Technical (force depends on having the appropriate desire) and Assertoric (appeal to desires that human beings tend naturally to share)
• Categorical Imperative


  Applies to all people and commands an action as necessary of itself without reference to another end, that is, as objectively necessary
• Categorical imperatives transcend our wants and desires by presenting us with rational principles of action in the light of which those desires themselves are to be assessed
• Moral integrity requires us to give second place to popularity, profitability, convenience, and all other sorts of personal advantage
• Angels


  Perfectly rational beings
• Human Beings


  Not perfectly rational, have inclinations
• Kant's Universalizability Test


  The procedure of seeing whether your own reasons for action could apply to everyone equally or whether they amount to special pleading in your own case
• Kant's Universalizability Test is about consistency, not consequences
• Kant's Basic Categorical Imperative


  I should never act in such a way that I should not also will that my maxim should be universal law
• Kant's Moral Philosophy can be formulated in one which requires that people RESPECT each other