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Categorical Imperative Kant

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Immanuel Kant believed that genuine morality was based on reason, with a catch that is. Kant spent a considerable amount of his life attempting to distinguish human nature apart from animal nature. He concluded that humans possessed the divine trait of reason and through a sense of duty should apply that very same trait in order to become worthy of happiness. In his pursuit to systematically define human morality, Kant, composed the Categorical Imperative. The foundational concept of this work was a stated:
Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without contradiction. (Kant)
In other words, Kant suggests that we should conduct ourselves in a perfect manner in accordance
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Philosopher Immanuel Kant is one of the most known advocates for in-compatibilism, which, is the disbelief in a coexistence of both free will and determinism. Kant argues that morality implies rationality, and, that rationality implies freedom. Kant views rationality as normative in that it requires rules of both reason and morality. Meaning, to Kant, acting moral and thinking reasonably are similar as they are both prescriptions of rationality. Furthermore, Kant believes that morality, and specifically, moral law is a categorical imperative, not a hypothetical one.

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I believe Beth’s decision to end her life is morally justified, despite the reservations her family might have. In this case, we will look at two aspects which would support Beth’s decision: a maxim turned Categorical Imperative in Kantian ethics, and the principle of autonomy. In Kantian ethics, the consequences of an action are irrelevant, only the intentions behind one’s actions can be judged to be morally right or wrong. The reason behind one’s actions can be based on one’s maxim, furthermore, “if they pass the test imposed by the categorical Imperative, then we can say that such actions are right” (479).

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Valerie Delucca 4/22/16 Categorical Imperative Immanuel Kant was a famous 18th century philosopher who is considered by many the model or central figurehead of modern philosophy. Perhaps his most profound work is the “Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals,” one of the first in which he discussed moral philosophy. Within this work, Kant suggests that morality and moral law stem from rationality and reason and therefore, any reasonable being would not need religion to live morally. He also writes that moral law is constructed of categorical imperatives that we all must carry out regardless of our wants and desires. Kant asserts that the implications for following these categorical imperatives are based upon the motivations behind our actions

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In his view, individuals have a moral duty to act in accordance with their own beliefs and values, even if they conflict with societal norms. Similarly, Kant argues that individuals have a responsibility to take ownership of their own moral decisions and not rely on external factors to influence their

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“What does it feel like to be moral?” Kant and the Subjective Vitality of the Moral Law Obeying the categorical imperative, by definition, requires a person to abstract from their conscious inclinations, acting from a higher kind of motivation that is not oriented toward personal gain. What kind of conscious mental state, precisely, is denoted by Kant’s references to this kind of motivation, however, is not immediately obvious. It certainly cannot be a mere desire for the end toward which an action prescribed by the moral law is geared – this would place the action right back into the sphere of inclinations. Nor, I will argue, can it be a desire to obey the categorical imperative as such – at least, not in the conventional sense of “desire”

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Kant’s Categorical Imperative also includes three versions: the formula from universal law, the formula from natural law, and the formula

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The end does not justify the means. This was the principal ethical theory of Immanuel Kant and made up his ‘Categorical Imperative’, a deontological argument which showcased how certain actions are fundamentally wrong, such as murder, lying or torture and can therefore, never be justified. Contrastingly a utilitarian would claim that the ends do in fact justify the means and would enact a focus on outcomes in deciding whether or not an action is morally permissible. In 2002 Jakob Von Metzler, a boy of just twelve years, was kidnapped and a police officer threatened the kidnapper, Magnus Gafgen, with torture in an attempt to find and save the child. Gafgen told the officer that he had killed the boy and then disclosed the location of the body.

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It is also important to keep in mind that according to Kant as told by William Cunningham

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When considering how best to apply a moral framework to one’s own life, it can be helpful to look to Immanuel Kant ’s book, The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals to inform our actions. It is in this book that Kant develops his moral framework for all humans, and Kant introduces the ideas of a ‘supreme principle of morality’ and his famous ‘categorical imperative’. For the purpose of this paper, I will critically engage with Kant’s ideas surrounding the second formulation of the categorical imperative, the Formula of Humanity. I will begin by explaining what the supreme principle of morality is, and its relation to the Formula of Humanity.

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It is this theory which had the greatest impact in the philosophical discipline of morality. Kant established this theory based on his conviction that morality arises from rationality, meaning that all moral decisions are rationally supported. This is effective because it makes the categorical imperative unshakable by eliminating any grey areas. The categorical imperative can be broken down into two simple to digest maxims or categories. The first of these maxims is the maxim of universality.

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In this paper, I will investigate one of Immanuel Kant’s formulations of the categorical imperative – the humanities as ends formulation. In his work, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, he states that the function of reason is to generate a will that is “good in itself”, as opposed to good for other purposes (Marino 194). Kant mentions that reason’s demands could be called “imperatives”. He defines two types of imperatives – the hypothetical imperative and the categorical imperative (Marino 210).

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I hope to convince the reader that Kant’s Categorical Imperative is the better way to live a morally conscious life and more practical to follow as well. First I will briefly describe both Kant’s and Mill’s principles. Then I will go on to explain the advantages and disadvantages of both. Finally, I hope to provide a counterargument for some of Kant’s Categorical Imperatives downfalls. Kant states the Categorical Imperative as: "Act as if the maxim of your action were to become through your will and general natural law."

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He believed that in the theory of deontology which says that consequences doesn’t matter, what really matter is the motivation, but how can we know which is a moral motivation? That is a very good question, this’s why Kant came up with Categorical Imperative, which are the steps to we can used to make a decision. There are three main principle in CI. First we have the principal of university, which says that if an action is right for others, then it’s right for us. Let’s talk about bribery, is it moral right?

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Kant believes that most people know right from wrong; the problem most people have is not in knowing what is morally, but in doing it. Kant also argued that rightness or wrongness of particular acts is determined by rules; these rules could be determined by his principle of universalizability. He also argued reason require not only that moral duties be universal but also absolutely binding. For instance, when lying is the only option to save someone’s life, still we shall not lie for it is morally wrong to lie. Kant introduced categorical imperative which states that people ought to do something regardless of the consequences.

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