Gone, Baby, Gone

In this paper, I will argue Kant’s categorical imperative's through a condensed summation of his Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals with specific regard for the need for categorical imperative and how it's flaws can disband the efficacy of his claim.

Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative is a theory that basically relays the same message that most mothers teach their kids, and that is to do the right thing. The categorical imperative could be easily explained by the Golden Rule about treating others as you would like to be treated. Kant dives a little deep with his theory, however, and breaks the categorical imperative into three formulations. The first formulation is about essentially removing yourself from a situation and doing what is best for everyone. Kant is basically saying that it is unethical to make decisions that affect everyone, but only benefits you. The second formulation is about making sure that

The categorical imperative suggests that a course of action must be followed because of its rightness and necessity. The course of action taken can also be reasoned by its ability to be seen as a universal law. Universal laws have been deemed as unconditional commands that are binding to everyone at all times. Kant

In Jerry Spinelli’s book Maniac Magee, Amanda showed to be very respectful and responsible. Amanda is respectful because she is not being rude or cruel to anyone. The only time Amanda yelled in the book is when she yelled at Maniac for not coming back to her house. I also thought Amanda was responsible because she was most of the time never doing anything bad. Amanda was responsible when she was looking after her little siblings. Amanda was very responsible all the way throughout the book but you could tell at the beginning because she cared for her books and her little library.

Amanda needs Laura to get married because Amanda had internal pain from when her husband left her and she didn't want her to go through the same thing. Tom told Amanda about a gentleman caller he got for Laura. Amanda's husband used to drink and she is very self-conscious about not wanting Laura's gentlemen callers to do the same. Laura has no autonomy because of Amanda.

If, the principle of Categorical Imperative was implemented that stealing is not right, no matter the circumstance or outcome, one could not obey the laws of the land, protect the land, protect his family and/or serve ones’ community. For example, an armed gunman enters into ones’ community threatening to destroy property, steal property, and kill countrymen and/or ones’ family, uttering “The only way you will stop me, is to forcibly take my gun and kill me” it would be your duty allow these events to unfold, because of ones’ duty, not to steal. After all, the gun is the gunman’s property, and he did not give anyone permission to take it. Without his permission one would be stealing. One cannot steal, because it is an ethical law and “Ethical laws are not open to negotiation”

Kant Categorical Imperative applies to the question, is it morally right for every child to be vaccinated against bad diseases like measles and mumps because the question resolves a decision that affects multiple people and can possibly have a negative impact on those around, by making this decision you can possibly hurt or benefit those around you. Kant Categorical imperatives helps answer this question because it helps determine morality depending on the choice that is made and how it will affect others, it allows people to look at the situation if it applied to everybody and what affect it will have. Kant Categorical Imperative is the way to go when talking about morality. If this morale role was applied to everybody in a world I don’t

Three years ago, Amanda decided that she was going to start taking care of abandoned puppies. She loved all of the puppies, but she formed a special bond with one named Kyro. Kyro was the only thing that made her happy. Despite the fact that Amanda was in a violent relationship, she felt safe when she was with Kyro.

Categorical imperative is based on a maxim, a reason for having acted one way or principle of an action. Maxim is broken into two parts that should be taken into consideration before acting, what are you about to do and why are you about to do it. Taking this into consideration will allow us, humans; to reduce

On the other hand, there are few to none examples of a Categorical Imperative, because as Kant would believe, they have to be actions that are good in themselves completely. To arrive at the Categorical Imperative, Kant starts off by explaining that an action is good without qualification if done from duty and not primarily from inclination, or ulterior motives. This, in a more simplified manner, means an action is good if it was the right thing to do and a person did it for the sake of duty and not because of anything else, like instincts or feelings. Kant believes there are very few people in this world that can actually live up to the standard of duty. From this point, Kant states that moral worth is determined by the rule or principle by which an action has been decided, not in the purpose to be attained by it. This statement goes back to the difference of means versus ends; is a person’s action based on the mean or is it based on ends? After Kant arrives at this, he then affirms that duty is the reverence for the law. The difference between reason and will is established at this point. Reason, or thought, can be described as theoretical or pure reason, or it can be described as practical reason. Kant describes theoretical reason as determining a given concept, but practical reason is idea of making the concept actual. Will, on the other side, can be broken down to either the “holy will” or empirically mixed

The categorical imperative refers to individuals not thinking of our actions because they are our basic human instinct. Because of this, the categorical imperative is not based on a motive. It also refers to human beings as self-actualizing individuals. Individuals are to treat other individuals the way they want to be treated because it is their right as a human. An example of this imperative would be if some individual sees another being bullied, their instinct is to stop the bully and comfort the victim to make sure they are okay.

The first formulation of the categorical imperative is “act only in a way the maxim of which can be consistently willed as a universal law of nature.” This formulation in principle has as its supreme law, “always act according to that maxim whose universality as a law you can at the same time will” and is the only condition under which a will can ever

Unlike Utilitarianism however, Kantianism states that ethics is a purely a priori discipline, thus, independent of experience, and that ethical rules can only be found through pure reason. Also contrary to Utilitarianism, Kantianism asserts that the moral worth of an action should be judged on its motive and the action itself, and not on its consequences. Based on these ideas, Kantianism propose that an action is good only if it performed out a 'good will '; which is the only thing that is good, in and of itself. To act out of a 'good will ', one must act in accordance with a categorical imperative. According to Kant there is only one categorical imperative, which is to "act only on that maxim in which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law" (Kant, 528); and can also be formulated as "act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as means, but always at the same time as an end" (Kant, 532). Essentially, the categorical imperative states that your actions must not result in a practical contradiction, which can be determined by conceptualizing all other people performing the same act. To illustrate, if I were

6. There are two alternative formulations of the categorical imperative. The first is that an act is right only if the actor would be willing to be so treated if the positions of the parties were reversed. The second is that one must always act so as to treat other people as ends, never merely as a means to an end (a way to accomplish our goals).

Immanuel Kant concerns himself with deontology, and as a deontologist, he believes that the rightness of an action depends in part on things other than the goodness of its consequences, and so, actions should be judged based on an intrinsic moral law that says whether the action is right or wrong – period. Kant introduced the Categorical Imperative which is the central philosophy of his theory of morality, and an understandable approach to this moral law. It is divided into three formulations. The first formulation of Kant’s Categorical Imperative states that one should “always act in such a way that the maxim of your action can be willed as a universal law of humanity”; an act is either right or wrong based on its ability to be