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Ethical Analysis: The Imperative, Utilitarianism, And Virtue

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Ethical Analysis: The Imperative, Utilitarianism, and Virtue Ethics Principles
The categorical imperative is a philosophical concept of Immanuel Kant and is an important aspect of ethical virtues. It may be defined as a way of looking at the motivations of one’s actions (Bjorn K. Myskja 1). Trust is important to any well-functioning relationship, business, society, etc. but on the other hand mistrust is a natural part of human nature and according to Kant humans are prone to deceiving others ((Bjorn K. Myskja 1). The categorical imperative is supposed to guide humans to make “the right” moral actions and decisions but isn’t meant to tell us how specifically we need to act. There are several forms of the categorical imperative, but the two …show more content…

An imperative is a command, like “go to bed” or “drink more water,” which according to Kant are abbreviations to hypothetical imperatives (Pecorino, Philip 1). “Go to bed, so that you can get your sleep” and “drink more water, because you need to stay hydrated” are the hypothetical imperatives, meaning the commands depend on the outcome to be achieved. These outcomes depend on the person, the situation, and the goal that is desired.
The hypothetical imperatives are supposed to tell us which actions are best to achieve our goals, but they do not tell us which goals we must choose. In deciding these ultimate goals, we must choose between the goal that is right, and the goal that will benefit oneself. In the case of working for Goldman Sacks corporation, you are aware that the preferred products are claimed to be average to low risk even though you have initial concerns that the risk is higher than advertised. You have a high career ceiling, you make over $250,000 a year, and expect to be with the company for the next 30 years, but you also know that a lot of people want this job, and you are easily replaceable. The boss is highly competitive and expects to outsell the rival branches. The elderly couple you are working with specifically asks about some of the preferred investment products that you are concerned with. You know that you must at least disclose

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Groundwork For The Metaphysics Of Morals By Immanuel Kant

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Immanuel Kant’s, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, pages 516-521, discusses the concept of the categorical imperative. The categorical imperative serves as the foundational principle for moral reasoning. Kant states, “There is therefore only one categorical imperative and it is this: “Act only on that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law,” (Kant, 516). He explains the categorical imperative as a universal moral law. He says it applies to all rational beings.

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Kant lays the groundwork for his moral theory in Chapter 2 of Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, emphasizing the idea of the categorical imperative. Kant argues that this imperative functions as the greatest moral standard, requiring people to act solely in conformity with principles that are able to be agreed upon by all. Kant's application of the categorical imperative leads him to oppose suicide. He contends that suicide lacks moral justification since it diminishes a person to nothing more than a tool, disregarding the intrinsic worth and dignity of thinking people. According to Kant, rational agents have inherent value and should be viewed as ends in and of themselves.

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Analyzing Kant's Explanation Of Moral Law

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In Kant's words, we act not merely in accordance with laws, but in accordance with our representations or conceptions of laws (AK 4: 412). Since categorical imperative is unconditional, we cannot simply analyse it to derive what we ought to do. Hence it must be synthetic a priori and hence morality depends on the possibility of establishing a synthetic a priori practical principle. The categorical Imperative, in the most general sense, tells us to act on those principles, principles which are themselves laws. Kant continues: There is, therefore, only a single categorical imperative and it is this: act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.

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As a deontological (duty-based) philosopher, Kant believes that morality is based on duty and respect. He emphasizes rationality as the only significant fact relevant to morality. His formulation of the categorical imperative serves to launch his argument regarding what it means to be truly moral and what it takes to universalize a moral law. The aim of Kant’s work was to establish

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One of Kant’s ethical theory is a moral theory, from choosing right or wrong of the human actions doesn’t depend on the consequences but on how they realize that duty. In Kant’s beliefs, he thought that there was a ultimate principles of morality which he has it known as the “The Categorical Imperative”. In his theory, he describes what he thought the difference between someone good or bad was.

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“Categorical imperative may be defined as a way of evaluating motivations for action. ”[1].According to Kant, “human beings occupy a special place in creation, and morality can be summed up in an imperative, or ultimate commandment of reason, from which all duties and obligations derive.” [1] He defined an imperative “as any proposition declaring a certain action (or inaction) to be necessary. ”[1]It shows the relationship between rational objective rules and will which, as far as its subjective nature is concerned, is not necessarily decided by the rules. It involves meaning of compulsoriness, obligation.

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The categorical imperative is the idea that “I should never act except in such a way that I can also will my maxim should become a universal law” (Kant, 14). After much deliberation, Kant concludes that the categorical imperative must be the only one. Afterward, Kant states the first formulation of the categorical imperative, sometimes called the formula of the law of nature, “act as if the maxim of your action were to become through your will a universal law of nature” (Kant, 30). Expounding upon this idea, Kant explains the difference between perfect(irremissible) and imperfect(meritorious) duty (Kant, 32).

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Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative

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Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative is essentially that you should act how you would want everyone else to act towards all other people. It says to act according to the maxim that you would wish all other rational people to follow, as if it were a universal law. This is similar to many maxims held by different religions: do unto others as you would have done unto you. Although, Kant does not justify his philosophy with religion, but rather with reason and logic. He believes that it is logical to want to do good always.

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German philosopher Immanuel Kant accepted the basic proposition that a theory of duties and rules telling us what we are obligated to do was the right approach to ethical problems (Velasquez, 2012). Kant wanted a way to gather all of the principle or duty that we have been talking about to work together, instead of leaving us confused between being only loyal to one principle or duty. Kant argued moral requirements are on a standard of the categorical imperative. Therefore, Kant believed that categorical imperative is based on the principle to determine whether one’s actions is ethically correct, in other words an ethical rule that does not depend on circumstances (Velasquez, 2012). Kant proposed two versions of categorical imperatives: first

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Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative

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Immanuel Kant insisted that the rightness of an action cannot be based on consequences that are actual or intended. This view is based on the concept of deontology, in which is the rightness or wrongness is not dependent on the consequences but rather it fulfills a duty morally. It gives the criteria of rightness and moral requirement actions are understood to be right or wrong in themselves. As Kant being a deontologist he believes that there is a supreme morality of principle, thus this principle is known as the Categorical Imperative. The Categorical Imperative are moral requirements that are rationally independent of any condition and an unconditional moral obligation that is binding in all circumstances and is not dependent on a person's

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Immanuel Kant Absolute

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These are hypothetical, and do not have absolute worth for all rational beings. The relevant imperative would then be one which “determines the will by means of representations of reason”, and which commands an action as “objectively necessary in itself, without reference to another end” (Kant 24-25). This categorical imperative is thus the ground of moral law, and Kant asserts that is it to “act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law” (30). Three principles of action stem from the categorical

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1250 Words | 5 Pages

Hypothetical imperatives are based on our desires, different from the categorical imperative (Frederick 4). Categorical imperatives are duties that come from reason. It is seen as the universal law, which applies to all human beings because we are rational (Frederick 4). It tells us what to do irrespective of what our desires may be. We can apply to the previous example (the owner of

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Kant sets out to elucidate what the categorical imperative contains. We ought to bear in mind that the categorical imperative is not a concept that can be established by an appeal to experience, since experience cannot furnish us with what ought to be, but rather what is. The categorical imperative, Kant explains, is not analytic, but rather it is a practical synthetic principle a priori, and establishing how synthetic a priori propositions are possible is always a daunting undertaking. With this difficulty, Kant resolves to postpone the resolution of the unconditional imperative for the latter part of his work (420). Kant argues that hypothetical imperatives – imperatives based on desire or inclination – are conditional, since they are dependent

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In his famous work “The Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals” Kant tries to develop a moral philosophy which depends on fundamental concepts of reason and tries to show that while making moral choices we should use reason. Kant, as an Enlightenment philosopher, places all his confidence in reason. In the first chapter, we generally recognized that an action is moral if and only if it is performed for the sake of duty. Duty commands itself as imperative. There are two types of imperatives as hypothetical and categorical.

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The first formulation of the categorical imperative is: “act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law”. In applying this formulation – the Universality principle – an agent must first construe the maxim that would underpin their potential course of action. They must then ask whether it would be possible for everyone to act in accordance with this maxim. If the maxim results in a logical absurdity when universalized, it is against the moral law.

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