There were two prominent ideas from the Sandel text that applied to the ethical issue I chose to examine. John Stuart Mill had two theories about Utilitarianism and the valuing of life in regards to harm and autonomy. Secondly, was Kant’s determination of the moral valuing of life. Mill, a Utilitarian, discussed the notion of justice and that all people are cognoscente beings and, as such, are entitled to self-defense. Mill’s assertions are important because he determines that everyone has a right to act of their own volition, provided that they do not harm others. Although Immanuel Kant rejects Utilitarianism, his insights are relevant to the issue of ethics in terms of protecting an individual’s rights. Kant fundamentally believes that human …show more content…
In Mill’s context, the rights of those hurt by language should be upheld because they constitute a large amount of the population in terms of suffering. Kant believes that we should protect an individual’s rights because we are all rational beings who are valued intrinsically (Sandel, p. 104). Kant is concerned with the idea of freedom and how we value things. He believes that because we have the capacity of free will, then we shouldn’t be used in an object manner. This alludes to the notion that as beings designated personhood, we have dignity and self-worth that is intrinsic (Sandel, p. 98). Therefore, for Kant, it is tantamount that people are inherently valued, and that values can determine the validity of an act. Thus, the use of derogatory, exclusionary, binary, and phallocentric language is a manifestation of valuing people incorrectly and negating their dignity. It is the morally correct way to value a person when the intentions are authentic. As people who have dignity and view and define ourselves are moral, we must stop using these forms of language simply because it doesn’t respect the dignity of others. Although Kant and Mill are drastically different in their approaches, I believe, based on some of their core arguments that they would interpret society as having an ethical obligation to restructure the vernacular used in regards to