Kant's Categorical Imperative

The Categorical Imperative – Immanuel Kant

• Kant's ethics is deontological, focusing on duties, motives, and adherence to rules, rather than consequences
• Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals elucidates the concept of a good will as the commitment to duty for its own sake
• Acting from a good will means duty is the sole reason for acting
• A good will is good without qualification and enables other character traits to be morally good.
• Developing a good will through moral law is key, and happiness is secondary
• Kant distinguishes between hypothetical and categorical imperatives to define the kind of law that can influence a will

Hypothetical vs. Categorical Imperatives

• An imperative is a rational requirement for action, acting as a command
• A hypothetical imperative suggests an action is good if it helps achieve a desired outcome or happiness, serving as a means to an end
• Rules of skill are a type of hypothetical imperative involving any possible end, where "good" is what's useful for achieving that end
• Counsels of prudence are a type of hypothetical imperative, where happiness is always the desired end
• Hypothetical imperatives are conditional statements, using "if" and "then"
• Obeying hypothetical imperatives is not morally obligatory, but specified only if interested in fulfilling the goal, differing from categorical imperative

Categorical Imperative

• A categorical imperative is a command to act a certain way because the act is inherently good, absolute, and morally obligatory
• Kant states there is only one Categorical Imperative
• Formula of the Universal Law dictates acting only on maxims that one can consistently will to become universal law
• Formula of Humanity dictates to act to treat humanity always as an end, and never merely as a means
• A "maxim" is a principle on which a person acts
• If you cannot consistently will that everyone do the same thing you are about to do, then it is morally wrong for you to act that way
• With the Formula of the Universal Law, you can create a maxim, conceptualize a world where everyone follows it, and see if it is morally permissible
• If it involves logical contradiction, it violates a perfect duty, also called a narrow duty which requires a specific action
• If conceptualizing the maxim acting universally doesn't involve a logical contradiction, one can ask wether they can consistently will all people to act in accordance with it
• If you cannot consistently will that anyone in your position in those circumstances should act in that manner, it is immoral because it violates an imperfect, or wide duty
• Wide duty does not require a specific action
• If one can consistently conceive and will that all people act on their maxim, then it is morally right
• Kant uses four examples to elucidate how this process works

First Universal Law Example - Suicide

• A depressed man contemplates suicide to end his pain, thinking self-love justifies it
• The maxim is that when life brings more pain than pleasure, one should commit suicide out of self-love
• Conceiving a world where everyone in this situation commits suicide leads to contradiction

Second Universal Law Example - Lying

• A man borrows money with a false promise to repay, illustrating a lie
• The maxim is that whenever money can be obtained by a false promise, it should be borrowed with that promise, even if repayment is impossible
• Conceiving a world where everyone makes lying promises leads to a contradiction

Third Example - Wasting Talents

• A talented person avoids hard work and neglects talent development
• The maxim is that when comfortable, one should let talents rust

Fourth Example - Generosity

• A wealthy person refuses to help those less fortunate
• The maxim is that when flourishing and others are in distress, one should give nothing to charity

Formula of Humanity

• An "end" is a purpose or goal that we use many things to achieve
• People, as rational beings, are ends in themselves, capable of creating their own purposes
• The Formula of Humanity requires respecting this aspect
• Using others solely as means disrespects what makes them people, treating them as mere objects
• Treating others solely as a means to an end is prohibited

Common Objections to Kant's Ethical Theory - Duties May Conflict with Each Other

• A common objection is the Case of the Inquiring Murderer, where duties conflict: not lying vs. protecting innocent life
• Kant argues against lying, even to a murderer, stating one is responsible for the lie's consequences

Kantian Response - Correct Application of CI Precludes Conflicts between Duties

• Defenders claim conflicts stem from misapplying the Categorical Imperative
• Correct CI application eliminates conflicts, requiring proper formulation of the maxim

John Stuart Mill's Objection - Kant's Ethical System Can Justify and Endorse Evil Actions

• Mill argues Kant's ethics permit immoral acts if the justifying maxim is universalized without contradiction
• Mill objects that Kant fails to show any logical or physical impossibility of universal adoption of outrageous immoral rules
• Mill suggests that Kant needs to provide instructions on how maxims should be phrased, and he does not do this

Kantian Response - Using the Formula of Humanity in Conjunction with the Formula of the Universal Law Will Resolve the Problem

• Some Kantians argue that the Formula of Humanity will judge if its a immoral action and will be rightly judge it as immoral when using the Formula of the Universal Law
• If the Formula of the Universal Law permits an action that the Formula of Humanity prohibits, then the formulas of the CI are not equivalent, and there must be more than one CI

Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle - Book One

• Aristotle states all is done for a goal
• Pursuing what is pursued for its own sake is called eudaimonia
• Experiencing eudaimonia means experiencing and fulfilling our ultimate goal in life
• He discusses three kinds of life: the life of pleasure, the political life, and the contemplative/philosophical life
• He explains why he thinks there is no such thing as a Form of Goodness
• "Good" has many meanings, with the different meanings being either equivocal by chance or equivocal by reason

Aristotle: Goodness

• Meanings equivocal by chance have no connection (e.g., "bat" referring to an animal or sports equipment)
• Meanings equivocal by reason are related (e.g., "healthy" can mean causing, improving, or indicating health)
• All uses have a commonality, which is "that for whose sake everything else is done"
• Happiness is the greatest good that is self-sufficient and desirable

The Function Argument

Each part of a human body has a function. The whole human being itself has a function. The function of x is what x alone can do or can do better than anything else.

• Only humans can reason
• The function of a human is an activity of the soul in accordance with a rational principle
• X is good if and only if x fulfills its function.
• Any activity is well performed if it is performed with excellence
• The human good is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue
• Virtue means excellence
• They believe that the inference goes from Step 1 to Step 2 comits the fallacy of composition

Aristotle – Book 2

• Two types of virtue: intellectual and moral
• Moral virtue arises from habit, not nature
• Natural skills don't require practice, virtues require continually doing virtuous things
• Virtues aren't unnatural, but don't originate in nature, meaning no one is born virtuous
• States of character concern the ways we respond to passions
• Moral virtue deals with actions and passions
• Excess and deficiency are signs of failure
• Being praiseworthy and successful are features of virtue
• Moral virtue is a mean between excess or deficiency

Virtue as a Mean

• The mean of Aristotle speaks of isn't a mathematical mean
• He is talking about what counts as a mean varies from person to person because everyone possesses different characters to different degrees
• What counts as the mean depends on a person
• He does this through a story about Milo so who was a wrestler
• Each Moral virtue is a mean between two vices, so it is a balance needed
• Aristotle that some actions are inherently extreme, such as adultery, murder, and theft
• The mean is when that act could be virtuous for one person but not the other

Cultivating Virtuous Traits

• Trying to identify the mean isn't easy
• Attempting to hit a target when the target is constantly moving
• When someone attempts to become more virtuous
• They should pursue
  • The extreme of that is closer to the mean than to the one that is other
  • The extreme that is the less consistent with our nature, juding how much the pleasure/pain that extreme gives you

Strengths and Objections to Virtue Ethics (VE)

• Focus on character is a STRENGTH as a correction from other ethical theories
• VE not falling prey to obsessive imparitality that plagues other theories
• Explain why particular character trait better
• Objections that VE is hard to explain what makes something a virtue without referencing other
• Can't always apply it to specific situations
• The moral luck problem that character can be based on other forces

The Caring Person – Virginia Held'

• Supports a normative ethical theory which is known as care ethics
• This opposes strict impartiality and obsession with abstract moral principles that are often found in ethical theories
• Mainly focuses on personal caring relations that people have with each other
• Care ethics is connected with ethics with feminist ethics

Care Ethics

• To be a caring persona and to be with a virtue are not the same
• Held states persons are “moral subjects,” who are “capable of action and of shaping
• Self-awareness happens gradually
• The relationships we have with each other are important
• The ethics of care conceptualizes persons as deeply affect and involved in the relations of others
• Relations with others are really important
• Doing so enables care ethics to analyze and evaluate morally significant aspects of life that elude the grasp
• Care ethics recognizes that all people enter into some relations involuntarily
• Care ethics can challenge the institutionalized forms of oppression

The Problem with Care Ethic

• Virtue theory tends to describe caring as a praiseworthy character trait
• Conceptualizing care solely as a virtue misses a central feature between the relations and people
• That it is because it is possible for the people with caring dispositions to have uncaring and acrimonious relations with each other
• A care virtue must be able to recgonize sensitiveit to the interdependencies
• The most common criticism of care ethics is that it creates opens to exploitation
• Due to virtue of care caregivers should care about they should they care for
• Who must take care the caregivers, and the answer is usually not ones there
• Claudia Card denounced care ethics as "slave morality" because this suggests that caregivers must put their needs
• Care gives ethical to some and create and gives abuse