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Comparing Kant And Liang's Analysis

Decent Essays

Engineer James Liang found himself entangled in a deep running scandal by means of an organized effort by Volkswagen to dupe emissions testing performed by the United States Government (Tabuchi, Ewing). With upcoming changes to the United States emission standards, Liang and his team came to the realization that their new diesel engine concept would come up short to meeting the new specifications (Department of Justice). Rather than scrapping the idea and spending additional time, effort, and resources to develop an engine that complied with the new standards, Liang and associates made the conscious decision to develop and equip new vehicles with a circumventive system (Tabuchi, Ewing). This system possessed the ability to detect whether the …show more content…

Contrasting these two imperatives focuses on the difference between doing something due to a sense of duty and doing something with the intention of self-gain. Kant believes that an action cannot be morally justifiable if the only driving factor in performing an action is the underlying idea of gaining something significant. Kant’s formulation of a subjective principle that governs action, what he coined a maxim, finds use in the application of test situations in determining the moral validity of an action. Of such tests, one known as the Universalization test implores a four-step process in determining the morality of an action. First, formulate a maxim to serve as justification for performing a given action. Then, extend this maxim as a universal law that all rational beings would follow when performing the given action. Now, question whether it is conceivable that the formulated maxim be a universal law, which governs rational beings. This is an example of perfect duty. Finally, ask whether you as an individual could rationally will that the maxim becomes a universal law governing all rational beings. This is an example of imperfect

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