There is an old saying that it is better to be lucky than good. This may be true if a person is always lucky, but luck sometimes has a tendency to run out. Making decisions that affect other people’s lives based on luck can be sometimes dangerous, and usually ethically questionable. Leaders who routinely depend on luck for success may find themselves relying on other questionable actions, such as lying, cheating, or stealing, to ensure luck stays on their side. Additionally, this type of behavior may force subordinates to make ethically questionable decisions when luck begins to run out.…
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from the 18th century who is well known as an essential person in philosophy today. He has made the argument that there are a set of essential ideas that structure human experience and is the source of morality. His thought continues to have a major influence in contemporary thought, especially the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, and aesthetics. Kant’s theory on morality as often been criticized on being too…
Immanuel Kant’s essays Critique of Pure Reason and Critique of Practical Reason led to his critique Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone.…
Immanuel Kant is recognized as the greatest philosopher since Plato and Aristotle (Wolff). He is most widely known for his work in the fields of metaphysics and epistemology (McCormick). Kant published many works regarding his epistemological views, but his most famous work is The Critique of Pure Reason (McCormick). He noted that Descartes had “simply accepted consciousness as an…inexplicable fact” (Wolff). Kant utilized this observation to refute Descartes’ famous quote, “I think, therefore I am,” with a slightly revised premise— “I am conscious” (Wolff).…
Emmanuel Kant (hereinafter “Kant”) believes that Ethics is categorical and states that our moral duties are not dependent on feelings but on reason. He further states that our moral duties are unconditional, universally valid, and necessary, regardless of the possible consequences or opposition to our inclinations (Pojman and Vaughn 239).…
Fraud is generally defined as an omission of a material fact or a misrepresentation of the truth, intended for personal gain or to cause loss to another party. The act of fraud is most commonly committed in order to deprive another of money, property, or a legal right. Fraud is considered criminal activity, and anyone who is affected by a fraudulent act has the ability to file a lawsuit to collect damages. J.C. Penny was accused of marking up the prices on their products and then discounting them to the original price in order to trick customers into thinking they were receiving heavy discounts and better deals. J.C. Penny committed this act for their own personal gain, and in doing so, they deprived their customers of money that they would…
According to Aristotle every activity aims at some good, which is happiness, and that we should do so by aiming for excellence through rational activities. Happiness is being able to do well in life and live well; however, he argues that many believe happiness has to do with your wealth, pleasure, or honor. People who are wealthy are not aiming for the good they are simply seeking it for another purpose. For example, when you have a lot of money and you want the new iPhone. Well now that you purchased the phone you have to purchase a new case and a new charger and then the next best iPhone becomes available for purchase and repeat. There is no end to the cycle of wealth because people are always seeking other means, which happiness is the…
Emmanuel Kant argues that the human understanding of our world is perceived by our experiences and only through them can we gain knowledge. Kant’s philosophic question is rooted in the theory of understanding; in short, what can we know and how can we know it? Most of our knowledge of the world can be derived from our observation of it. As children, we see things, touch things, smell things and so on. Gradually, we understand the world in which we live in; this is the knowledge of sense-perception. For example, wind has no physical form but we can see its effects and can classify it as being part of nature. Kant, however, perceives knowledge only through our experiences. So going back to the example of wind, Kant would say we have knowledge of wind not because we…
The categorical imperative describes Kant’s account for morality’s absolute and unconditional commandment, which dictates rational beings’ moral obligations and duties. From the notion and understanding of a ‘good will’, to that of ‘duty,’ springs out Kant’s three propositions that give rise to the categorical imperative’s first formulation. Through these propositions, the first formulation arrives at the fundamental principle of morality and thus the principle upon a good will must act. It can be read as follows: ‘Act only according to that maxim whereby you can the same time, will that it should become a universal law.’ In order to understand how it is that Kant arrived at this first formulation, first, I will present a close examination and definition of concepts such as ‘good will’ and ‘duty,’ and then analyze how these are incorporated in Kant’s three propositions that arrive at the categorical imperative itself through the explanation of his three propositions. Together with this will be certain limitations I have observed upon close examination of the text in this first section of Kant’s Groundwork.…
Kantian Ethics: Good will, cont’d Categorical and Hypothetical Imperative, Duty, Rational Nature, Just War- Just peace, Terror, Punishment…
When I first read the essay by Immanel Kant, "What is Enlightenment?" I thought that Enlightenment meant becoming aware of things you were otherwise in the dark about. But, after reading Kant’s article a few times, I saw that he views enlightenment as "Man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity”. Kant discusses the nature of Enlightenment and how it can be taken to the overall public, he also says in his essay that “Enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage.”…
At age 13, Danielle Bregoli accidentally became a viral internet sensation. She sky-rocketed to pop-culture relevance when clips from her appearance on the daytime talk show Dr. Phil, in a segment entitled “I Want to Give Up My Car-Stealing, Knife-Wielding, Twerking 13-Year-Old Daughter Who Tried to Frame Me for a Crime,” were turned into viral videos and popularly recreated internet jokes. Often referred to by the most commonly quoted catchphrase, the “cash me ousside” girl no finds herself the subject of articles, paparazzi attention, and reportedly an upcoming reality TV show (Hautman, 2017). Although Bregoli appears to be please with these developments in her life, the trajectory her image has taken was one that was entirely out of her…
It is both unethical and immoral for undocumented immigrants to use legitimate identification to receive similar benefits of those who are citizens of that country. The framework developed in this paper incorporates three main ingredients, firstly Kant’s first and second formulation of categorical imperatives as well as duty, secondly the social contract theory; primary the state of nature, and lastly honesty.…
Kant holds the position that as long as one does not violate the rights of others man is a free agent. Despite this man cannot use his own freedom to destroy himself. Kant believes that it is one’s duty to preserve their life and by willfully taking their life they are doing the opposite of this. This is seen in the quote “The first, not principal, duty of a human being to himself as an animal being is to preserve himself in his animal nature. The contrary to this is willful physical death or killing oneself.”(Kant 1996 p. 176). Another duty Kant mentions that man must abide by is the duty to uphold one’s dignity. By a human being taking their own life they are violating this duty of maintaining their dignity. Moreover, he claims that by committing…
The possibility of the existence of right and wrong has been a subject of discussion among philosophers for centuries and many theories have been presented to answer the question of whether morals exist. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), the great German philosopher is one who has contributed profoundly to the world of philosophy and especially in regards to his thought on the subject of morality. Kant disagreed with Hume that morality is objective and not subjective. Kant wanted to propose a pure moral philosophy, one of absolute necessity and independent of all human feelings, because if it not so, it will not be absolute and binding upon every person. The purpose of morality is to affect our behaviour and that it is reason that makes humans moral…