Kant's Moral Theory

Kant’s moral Theory and the problem of divorce by Adrian Navarro Kant's moral theory says a lot about us people in general. That we should act as if our actions are a “universal law” Every action must have logic and reason, and must think about the greater picture, meaning you must take into consideration what would happen if everyone did the same thing you did. His strong viewpoints about doing what's right and logical cause great stir in topics such as divorce. Kahn's categorical imperative, his principle of universal law, and principle of humanity as ends in themselves are all ideas that he believes we must think about when talking about things such as divorce. He believed that our actions were divided into two types of duty: perfect
The categorical imperative as stated by Kant is something that we must do, and is true all times and in all situations. It is imperative to an ethical person that they make choices based on the categorical imperative. in other words an ethical person follows a "universal law" regardless of their situation. When talking about this Kant uses the “thirsty man” and the “dying man” as an analogy to explain this. He thought that the morality of a choice is why we make a choice and not what happens after. This is true for the analogy of the dying man where he dies after choking on water the thirsty man gave him. Despite the death of the dying man the thirsty man did the right thing because the dying man needed the water more than him. Now when talked about in the context of divorce. Divorce to Kant is essentially breaking a promise. When you decide to marry someone you make the rational and logical decision and promise to be with that person forever out of love. That to Kant is a categorical imperative because since we are taking an oath and promising something, it is our duty to carry out that
When looking at the issue of divorce, it conflicts with the perfect duty to others which is basically to not do anything to others that they would not accept (kill, hurt, enslave, deceive, etc.) Divorce most of the time hurts one if not both of the people involved so it can't possibly follow the perfect duty to others. In a way divorce is like deceiving the other, when a person commits to marriage they commit to being with the other person forever in sickness and health, but when you ask for a divorce you have accentially deceived your partner and are essentially backing out of the commitments you made. Like hobbes would say, you cannot break a social contract (Marriage) and Kant seems to agree with this. After all Kant states that human beings are rational, but the goal of reason is not happiness the point of being rational is to have a will that does what is right. So when committing to something like marriage the only rational thing to do is complete it. This also relates to the imperfect duty to oneself, because as a person the imperfect duty is to develop your self and develop your talents. In order to develop yourself you must think about the maxim when thinking of acting a certain way. This also relates to the imperfect duty to others because when you ask for a divorce you are not