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.…
He believed that our actions must come from a sense of Duty, not because we care for or love one another but because it is our Duty to “respect the Moral Law” (p. 246). Judging the importance of a decision based on whether or not it was following a rule or set of rules is called deontological ethics. He believed that it was not the consequences of the action which were important but the person’s motive carrying out the said action. Many disagree with Kant saying that we must have a foundation to start from, a reason such as love or concern to do what is morally…
Kant writes about two formulations of his categorical imperative, the first being Universal law. The formulation of Universal Law is the basis of Categorical Imperative. It states that “Act only on that maxim [principal rule of conduct] whereby you can at the same time will that it would become a universal law” (Pojman and Vaughn 239). Universal law suggests that the maxim is an objective and universal…
1. Kant gave this principle (the Categorical Imperative, RS) different formulations, but at one point he expresses it like this:…
Categorical Imperative- (Kant) says that you have a moral duty to act in the way you believe everyone should act.…
The categorical imperative is a way of testing possible actions. The maxim of universality is as follows : Act so that the totality of maxims from which you act are such that you can regard yourself as enacting through these maxims a unified scheme of public moral perceptions , the enforcing of which by all reasonable and rational persons . According to Kant, the correct way to think about ones actions are to contemplate whether or not one would like that action to happen to you. In other words, one should use the idea of the golden rule. He thinks that humanity should use this type of guideline, so that humans do not give into their natural ways, and see it in less personal terms.…
The categorical imperative is none other than the law of free will. Even though Kant had formulated this into his own theory that was his, just like every theory, it was…
Kant's moral argument can be summarised in 4 points. Point 1, a good will or a person with right moral intentions seeks to bring about the summum bonum. If we take our ethics seriously we can see that we want to achieve the summum bonum. Kant, however was adamant that people should not act nice to receive an award at the end of the act. Kant was convinced that an act is only morally good if it is done for its on sake and without any selfish thoughts. He believed that people should do the right thing because it is the right thing and not for any reward or praise.…
Kant’s argument is that, instead of being obedient to an externally imposed law or religious precept, one should be obedient to one’s own self-imposed…
Furthermore, Kant intensified that since we humans are rational agents, we are free to make decisions freely, set goals, and guide conduct by reason. Therefore, if we are rational agents that make immoral decisions then we must be ready for the consequences that follow. There are no…
The book describes in detail two of the four aspects of this imperative. These ideas demand that people behave, through their actions, as if there was a universal generalized rule for everyone. The first form of the imperative discussed regards that “we do only what we can accept or will that everyone does” (72). In other words, if we perform an action would we accept or tolerate others to perform the same action.…
Kant’s argument that an act out of duty can not be in conflict with itself or with any other will acting out of duty derives from the concept he puts forth of the internal principle. A will cannot conflict itself if it determines itself a priori. By determining its morals before the benefit of experience, it determines itself simply that it exists as it is. Intuitively, anything pure cannot conflict with itself just as the idea of good cannot conflict with itself and be somehow partly bad (437). Thus by simply being, without any other influence determining it, the will is an end in itself (437). A will acting out of duty, or in other words on its own internal principles, can not conflict with another will simply because it does not depend on the other will. In order to conflict, something must first interact. And if two wills are acting in accordance with duty, then they each recognize each other as an end in itself, and therefore do not interact on the level of morality (438). Just as a self-sufficient village with no roads leading to or from can not conflict with another village simply because it needs not and cannot interact, a self-sufficient will, and therefore determined with no external influence, can also not conflict with anther will acting out of duty. Though if something is not self-sufficient, it requires another object to fulfill its ends. As with the village, if it needs to conquer a neighboring village’s farmland in order to feed itself, conflict arises. Similarly, should a will not be determined a priori, but instead based on external circumstances, then a will must use another will to fulfill its needs, and therefore would conflict with the autonomy of the second…
It attempts to describe a decision making process based on the deceptively simple question, "What ought we do?" He uses rules referred to as maxims as the basis for making decisions. According to Kant when we are contemplating whether an action is moral or immoral we should ask ourselves what rule or maxim we would be following when making the choice. Kant also stresses the autonomy of each human being as a rational agent based on their ability to reason and their right to be respected by others as rational agents. These two concepts can be presented in two formulations describing constraints that according to Kant should be applied to the maxims we adopt.…
In Kant's first Categorical Imperative, he speaks of using logic for deciding universal law, but doesn't specify who should be considered when applying the question, is it good for everyone? With Kant's second Categorical Imperative, it is clear he believes rationality should be used for the sake of other rational beings, humans. Kant obviously omits animals or any other “object” free of the ability to act independently and rationally. Essentially what Kant clarifies in the second Categorical Imperative is that use of the formulations, applies only to people, as people are “free agents capable of making their own decisions”(Rachels 138). Humans are able to use hypothetical imperatives, or the consideration of goals and outcomes when making decisions, if it doesn't involve…
Here are three formulated maxims that make up the categorical imperative: “The first version of the categorical imperative is act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law” (p.33, Shulzke 2012)… In the second formulation, Kant says moral actors must, 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” (p. 34, 2012)… The third formulation is actions should enable others to exercise free will and make moral choices.…