Categorical imperative Essays

Kant’s Categorical Imperative seems eerily similar to the old adage “Treat others the way you would want to be treated.” I say this because the general idea of Kant’s philosophy is to hold yourself to a standard that the world should also be held to. There are numerous examples where you can show that this philosophy works, ranging from smaller scale examples affecting only a few people, to larger scale example that could affect the whole world. One of these smaller scale examples could be; If a mother is pushing an infant in a stroller, and she has a toddler toddling behind her. She is also struggling to get the door open in order to usher the toddler through it, and get through the door herself.

Traditionally throughout history, human beings have followed very explicit moral codes derived from their respective religious beliefs. A commonality across most religions is a concept that reads something like “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. This particular quote is the Christian version of the idea known as “The Golden Rule”. However, the age of the enlightenment brought to the world a period of secularization at a scale not seen prior in human history.

Introduction: Kant’s Categorical Imperative and the Emptiness Charge in Kant’s Moral Philosophy Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy is mostly remembered for its central thesis, the Categorical Imperative (CI). According to Kant, rational beings experience the moral law as a Categorical Imperative. The Categorical Imperative commands universally and unconditionally, from which all duties are derived. Kant articulates the Categorical Imperative through several formulations.

Regarding to the numbers of Categorical Imperative, many Kantians make the response, for example, Nuyen supports the most widely accepted Paton’s view: there are five or more formulations. In my thesis, I will mainly analyze three main formulations and talk about formulation of autonomy in the last chapter. See A. T. Nuyen Counting the Formulas of the Categorical Imperative: One Plus Three Makes Four of formulation Like the challenge raised by Benjamin Constant in 1797, Kant responded in a short essay On a Supposed Right to Lie from Philanthropy. Constant’s charge is basically around Kant’s moral principle ‘duty to tell the truth’ would, if taken unconditionally and singly, make any society impossible.

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.

Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative is a theory of ethics. Essentially Kant gives us his definition of what imperative means, which he defines as something that a person has to do. The categorical imperative is something that a person has to do, regardless of the circumstances surrounding that situation. Kant expands on his ethical theory by creating a new idea called a maxim. What a maxim essentially is, is saying what you want to do, and giving reasons why you want to do it.

As a Kantian, the ultimate goal is to focus on our maxims and not on how much pain or pleasure the act could possibly produce. So as a result, Kant would argue that Jim should not kill the Indian man, even if it would save the other Indian men. The reason why is because Kant does not believe in using people as mere means, it wouldn’t be considered a conceivable maxim, and it would be betraying a perfect duty. The definition of deontology is having the belief that you do what’s right because you have a moral duty.

First off, allow me to talk about moral skepticism. (scepticism as the author put it) A moral sceptic might be the sort of person who says "All this talk of morality is tripe," who rejects morality and will take no notice of it. (Rachels, 2010, p. 50) There are some people in this world who will take morality and toss it out the window, because to them morality is binding and judgemental to the point to where they think that it will control you. Hypothetical and Categorical imperatives are very interesting in their own unique way.

“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”

Many people believe you should always do what seems to be morally right, however is that always true? Maybe people have different opinions on what is morally right and wrong to do, however if you don 't do these things there is no law to state that you will get arrested or fined if you do not contribute to famine relief. Kant gives us a description on what is perfect and imperfect duties and how he feels about everything that singer has opinions on also. Kant 's distinction between perfect and imperfect duties refers to perfect duties being strict or rigorous duties. These duties such as the duty not to commit suicide and the duty not to make a lying promise.

However, the very meaning of the rule given above is contradictory. If people’s lives can be sacrificed for the benefit of humanity, then how can one determine where the line of sacrifice stops? If everybody can be sacrificed and is sacrificed, then what is left of humanity in the end? The basis of all other benefits is life and if a system is arbitrarily sacrificing people’s lives, then there is no way one can say that sacrificing people is for the benefit of humanity. So, the Categorical Imperative has already been broken by the movie, specifically in its use of the system of Pre-Crime.

One of the most regarded ethical theories in contemporary period is deontological ethics. From historical point of view, contemporary or recent refers to the early or middle part of the twentieth century, and even the late nineteenth century. There are some features of these contemporary ethical theories that appear to express relatively modern points of view. One of which is the emphasis on plurality or multiplicity and relativity; another feature is the denial of absolutes and universality. Theories in this era focus on the importance of lower-level rules, judgements or decisions that are said to test, enhance or even replace principles.

Debate of the Morally Ideal Person Many people have different views on what is the correct moral ideal, the spectrum varies from person to person. Two very important people, in understanding moral value were Aristotle and Immanuel Kant. Kant has a person of moral worth whereas Aristotle believes the moral ideal is someone of Aristotelian virtue. I believe Aristotle’s ideal person of virtue is the correct morally ideal person, in comparison to Kant.

Philosophy Hamad aldawood Monday, March 19, 2018 Introduction The Ontological Argument was proposed by Saint Anselm to try and ascertain the existence of God. Anselm’s argument is based on the fact that there is a specific concept of God. It establishes the existence of God as "that than which nothing greater can be conceived" (Roth, 1970, p.270). From Saint Anselm’s argument, it is apparent that Ontological Arguments are mostly deductive and a priori.

Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative and John Stuart Mill’s view of utilitarianism are two very different approaches to ethics and morals. In fact, they are the opposite of one another. Kant’s view of ethics is an ethics of pure reason- a deontological theory of ethics. He stresses that feelings and emotions should have no part in ethics because they are unreliable, changeable, and uncertain. He states that ethical principles must be universal and that ethics are distinctively human.

Abstract Phishing is defined as fraudulent perpetrated by criminals usually steal attributes such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details and sometimes money was stolen indirectly from phish in order to lure someone into visiting a fraudulent web site or downloading malicious software that purposely for stealing sensitive information. Online shopping has become a trend for people to shop online but at the same time phishing has growing rapidly as well. To achieve the purpose of this study, the journal article related to online frauds with phishing are reviewed and identified. The result after applying the ethical theory which is Kantianism (Kant) , it shows the online frauds in bank with phishing brings more negative effects than

Immanuel Kant introduces the concept of the Categorical Imperative in his Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals as the supreme principle of morality. The supreme principle of morality, posits Kant, is a moral law that is universal, unconditional, and from where we can derive all morality; hence, it must be adequate to inform all moral conduct (G 4:417). In formulating the categorical imperative, Kant develops the Formula of Humanity, which is as follows; “so act that you use humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end, never merely as a means” (G 4:429). The Formula of Humanity, then, is a candidate for the formulation of the supreme principle of morality.

In “The Subjectivity of Values,” J.L Mackie argues for Error Theory. Error Theory is a version of moral skepticism. This version of moral skepticism denies the existence of right and wrong as “intrinsically normative entities on fundamental grounds as unsure about what kinds of things such entities would be, if they existed” (Mackie 1977). His ‘Central Argument’ article affirms two things: Objective values provide reason to motivate anyone aware, and the awareness of some objective reason would provide reason in such a way that everyone would be motivated (to some extent) to act in accordance with the value.

That is, our feelings of nature are properly designed and therefore ought to be heeded. Kant’s belief of ethics might be seen as an over-arching design and order of nature. The third illustration considers the issue of developing one’s talents. Nature endows us with aptitudes that are intended for a given purpose, which Kant implies, are valid in an appropriate system of nature.

In “Of Suicide” by David Hume, Hume examines and discusses the beliefs on suicide. Many religions and the government are against the act of suicide. Although many do not believe in suicide, Hume and many others believe that suicide is not criminal and should not be looked down upon. Hume believes that we all have a choice and if suicide is your choice it should not be criminal or looked down upon.