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Kant & Ethics

Kant Believed that will is the only thing inherently good without qualification, and that we should behave "according to the maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law," (Kemerling). By behaving this way, a person is hoping that everyone else will behave this way in the future, and so good will can be spread. Kant Maintained that the expression of the moral law provides a concrete, practical method for evaluating particular human actions of different types. For instance, if you are wealthy, it is permissible never to help anyone less well-off, refusing to help someone who is really struggling and in need of help, but no one could consistently will that this become the universal law because even the most fortunate person may fall on hard times and be in need of help themselves one day. In this case we have an imperfect duty to help those less fortunate, even though we cannot do a perfect duty by helping everyone less fortunate.

Kant believed moral occasions arise even when other people are not involved (Kemerling). He believed we have a perf3ct duty not to commit suicide if it would cause more misery than satisfaction. Since no one would will a universalized maxim of neglecting to develop the discipline required for fulfilling one's natural abilities, we have an imperfect duty to ourselves not to waste our talents.

Kant's supreme principle of morality was his belief that all moral judgments must be known a priori (Altman). He believed our conceptions of morality are not something we discover through experience and deduction by exercising reason alone, but that all conceptions of morality are completely independent of the outside world. Kant saw this theory and himself as a profound catalyst for a revolution in philosophy, changing the flow into a totally new direction. In Critique of Pure Reason he argued that the principles governing human behavior must be a priori not posteriori...

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Kant & Ethics. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 16:34, April 25, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1704882.html