Paper I – Spring ‘16 What has to be true about our actions for them to be right or wrong? Respond with reference to Kant and Bentham In an episode of the popular 90’s TV-series Friends named “The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS”, the characters Phoebe and Joey engage in a debate over the existence of self-less acts of kindness. Referencing the philosopher Immanuel Kant’s moral theory, Joey, claims that there is no such thing as a “selfless good deed” (“The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS”). Phoebe now sets out to disprove this theory and comes back having allowed a bee to sting her so “he could look cool in front of his friends” (“The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS”). Joey then points of that the bee probably died in the act which would then cancel out the good …show more content…
These are words once spoken by the German theologian Martin Luther. By this he meant that everything that is done in faith is morally good while everything that is done with premeditation and complacency is evil, despite positive consequences of the action. The idea of the good being outside of man was something the German philosopher Immanuel Kant found offensive. To Kant it was a decisive factor that the good originated in man himself. Man is in himself the source to ethics. Kant also established his theory of man’s autonomy and self-determination through the notion that man is only ruled by himself. This theory of ethical self-determination was evolved through the categorical imperative, which set the foundation to judge all moral behavior. According to this you must always act so as you are able to wish that the maxim you act upon could be turned in to a universal law. In this way Kant was practically rewriting the golden rule of the biblical expression “do to others as you would have them do to you” (New Annotated Bible, Matthew