Kant Ethics

Kant's ethics and the categorical imperative we get the categorical imperative from Immanuel Kant and by categorical he doesn't mean an individual category he means across-the-board it includes all categories that's what we mean by categorical and imperative means of course command so a a rule or a command or an imperative as it were that would apply in all situations at all times categorically well we need to take a look at his whole a deontological system of ethics deontological simply means duty so what is our responsibility our obligation as human beings in terms of how we should comport ourselves Kant's answer is do what is rationally or logically right for human beings so let's take a look at where it's coming from on this he has two basic assumptions the first being that only human beings are capable of rationality being that that is the case can't believe that it is imperative to protect that rationality and that ability to be rational in all human beings because to take away our ability to be rational means to take away our humanity what it means to be a human being so that is preeminent it is of the utmost importance that we protect everyone's ability to be rational secondly as rational beings only human beings are autonomous meaning we can make choices we can volitionally choose to do this or that whereas every other creature on the planet pretty much just reacts to what their body is telling them to do as opposed to rationally figuring that out again this being unique to human beings needs to be protected and preserved at all times all right well Clark believes we have two ethical imperatives that should guide our actions and our decisions our ethical decisions the first is what is best for everyone equally so for everyone we need to consider how our actions and how our principles of action affect everyone equally secondly what preserves the needs of each individual equally okay so on the one hand we're concerned with what is best for everyone and then also what is best for each individual and his two categorical imperatives relate to those core values so the first formulation of Kant's categorical imperative is act only according to that maximum by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law now perhaps you've heard your mother say what if everyone did that this is sort of what is being implied here by Conti saying if it doesn't logically make sense that your action that you are saying is an ethical action could be made dispositive meaning that it could be enforced or imposed upon everyone automatically then perhaps it's not what you would consider the best ethical action so let's take line for instance let's say well you know generally lines not good but sometimes you have to lie you know you have to tell a white lie cod would say okay well so let's then test this out logically what if everyone lied all the time this is what he means by accurately according to the maximum ID which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law what if everyone did that automatically all the time everyone always lied and when you think about that you realize well if everyone always lied we would know that we're being lied to so we couldn't be deceived so we couldn't be lied to so logically that couldn't ever work it would be impossible to lie all right so he says well that tells you right there that you're being illogical by saying that it's okay to lie how about always tell the truth well when you when you logically follow that one out you would say well we wouldn't have a problem if everyone always told the truth everything would be square and we'd know you know what is going on we wouldn't have any logical conflicts all right let's move on to the second formulation acts so that you treat humanity whether in your own person or in that of another always as an end and never as a means this can be summed up by never used people never lie to people but more more importantly never used never manipulate people when you manipulate someone or deceive someone you're trying to get them to do something that had they been given all the true information they may not really go along with what you're trying to get them to do you're using them as a means to attain what you want Kanta say never do that always treat everyone as an end in and of themselves so we can see that if we go back to console assumptions what he's saying is that if we deceive people we are trumping their rationality we are not preserving their ability to be rational and thus it is an assault on their very humanity the categorical imperatives Emmanuel cut please join us at philosophers 101 by clicking on the link below and there you'll have the opportunity to put your name and email in and join us to get access to all the videos available in the video library

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Keywords: kant ethics, kant quotations, kant morality, kant categorical imperative, kant philosophy, Kantian Ethics

Id: eQcC1qYP08s

Length: 7min 57sec (477 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 05 2013