Kantian Ethics Research Paper

Different Lifestyles Create Different Personal Morals The Book Thief, written by Markus Zusak demonstrates that personal morals can differ among individuals depending on the influence of varying factors. Everyone has their own individual morals, it is their set of guidelines to follow based on personal beliefs and opinions. The development of morals can differentiate through individuals based on their range of knowledge, use of social class and the culture they live in. Knowledge can affect personal morals in accordance with a comprehension of today’s reality.

Society has variety of ways in which it can influence a person’s personal code of ethics. My belief system definitely started from the foundation of my family. My family along with other family members I looked up to had a great influence on my ethical standpoint. Growing up, respect, sharing,

German philosopher Immanuel Kant was considered to be one of the most influential thinkers of his enlightenment era. He was the greatest western philosophers in his time. Kant’s works on epistemology (theory of knowledge), aesthetics, along with his ethics that had a profound influence on later philosophers. Other than establishing himself as one of the greatest western philosophers, Kant also made a contribution to science. He is considered to be an important figure in modern science. Despite him being mostly interested in philosophy of science and knowledge that science can produce. Kant’s main contribution was to the rise of modern science and its liberation from theology. Some would describe Kant’s philosophy as the golden middle between

Immanuel Kant was born April 22, 1724 in Konigsberg.Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher best known for his work The Critique of Pure Reason, was one of the first to describe this era with the word “ Enlightenment.” (Ellis 183-184). He attended the collegium Fridericianum at the age of eight, Latin school that taught primarily classicism. (Immanuel Kant - Biography). Immanuel Kant went to the University of Konigsberg, or also know as Albertina. Kant was born into an artisan family. His father was a harness marker and a pietist. Pietism is the stress on the emotional and personal aspects of religion. His mother's father was also a master harness maker, and she was better educated that the other women.

No matter who you are, where you live, or what your culture is, mostly everyone has some idea of what good morals and values are, at least to them. Truthfully, the definition of “good morals” can be different for everyone and it is something that is much debated in philosophy. Many philosophers have developed their own theories regarding right and wrong and what to do for the best outcome when faced with moral dilemmas. While it may seem straightforward to just “do the right thing”, the “right thing” has lots of different definitions and consequences that may cause undesirable effects. Act Utilitarianism, Hedonism, and Consequentialism are all theories that philosophers developed as a guideline for making good moral choices, and all have received both criticism from some as well as praise.

Part of my ethical beliefs center around Kantian theory and principle ethics. These concepts revolve around my actions being based on universally accepted rules and law, where in a perfect setting, all persons adhere to these ideas in any situation (Richter & Bruke, 2007, p. 14). The ideals from Kantian theory and principle ethics

Everyone has their own moral ethical beliefs that drive their everyday decisions. Ethics helps us determine what is right and wrong and sets a guideline which makes each person accountable of their own actions. Your moral character assist in suppling attributes for making decisions, creating relationships with others, and will benefit in creating your own individual personality. Rae (2009) covers seven ethical systems which I will describe two of them, one that is closets to my ethical belief system, and one that I believe is the farthest away.

In our society today, we are mostly challenged by two questions: ‘is it right to do this or that? And ‘how should I be living in society?’(Bessant, 2009). Similar questions were greatly discussed in the history by our ancestors in their philosophical discussions. The most ancient and long-lasting literature on moral principles and ethics were described by Greek philosopher Aristotle. He had an excellent command on various subjects ranging from sciences to mathematics and philosophy. He was also a student of a famous philosopher. His most important study on ethics, personal morality and virtues is ‘The Nicomachean Ethics’, which has been greatly influencing works of literature in ethics and heavily read for centuries, is believed to be

Principle based, or rights-based, ethics emphasize the fact that the correct path is not determined by the consequences but by certain principles or duties. (DesJardins, 2014, p. 37). Therefore, Immanuel Kant's (1724–1804) moral theory is deontological: one's motivations are guided by a sense of duty rather than personal inclinations. The main principles of the metaphysics of morals are; we are ends in as human beings, ends in ourselves, and not to be used as mere means by others; respect for one’s own humanity involves respect for others; morality is itself identical with freedom, and acting immorally involves being enslaved

“There is no possibility of thinking of anything at all in this world, or even out of it, which can be regarded as good without qualifications, except a good will.” (Kant, pg.7 393). No other thing that may appear good can be unqualifiedly good, as even “Talents of the mind…Gifts of power…[Other] qualities…Have no intrinsic unconditional worth, but they always presuppose, rather, a good will, which restricts the high esteem in which they are otherwise rightly held.” (Kant, pg.7 393-394). So Immanuel Kant introduces the public to his Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, which results not in simply a grounding work, but one that is utterly groundbreaking. This opener, wholly devoted to the establishment of the importance of will and intention, notes the guiding characteristics of a good will. As enumerated previously, Kant recognizes the plausible potential positivity of plenty concepts, but remains of the mind that none of these are good in themselves without the efforts of a good will to guide and restrict them in a manner that perpetuates their positivity.

Kant says that moral values are ‘good without qualification.’ This assertion and similar remarks of Plato can be understood in terms of a return to moral data themselves in the following ways: 1. Moral values are objectively good and not relative to our judgments; 2. Moral goodness is intrinsic goodness grounded in the nature of acts and independent of our subjective satisfaction; 3. Moral goodness expresses in an essentially new and higher sense of the idea of value as such; 4. Moral Goodness cannot be abused like intellectual, aesthetic, temperamental and other values; 5. Moral values are good in that they never must be sacrificed for any other value, because they are incomparably higher and should absolutely and ‘first’ be sought for;

The question of how we determine what is right and what is wrong has been one that has plagued humankind for centuries. Although many have tried to answer this question we have yet to find a definite answer. Adam Smith is convinced that morals are grounded in sympathy and experience. Immanuel Kant, however, is certain that morals should not be derived from experience but from pure reason. I for one believe that neither of these men are entirely correct. Both of their theories on morality are flawed in that one does not account for the human experience and the other takes the human experience too much into account.

German philosopher Kant was first to introduce the Kantian ethics; hence, the named after him. According to Professor Elizabeth Anscombe, Immanuel Kant was Unitarianism’s rival; he believed actions that are taboo should be completely prohibited at all times. For instance, murder should be prohibited. Even though nowadays a person cannot be punished if death is involved as a self defense, from Kant’s perspective this is still prohibited, although sometimes these actions bring more happiness to the big majority of people than sorrow. Kant stated that before acting, one should ask his/her self: am I acting rationally and in a way that everyone will act as I purpose to act? Is my action going to respect the moral law or just my own purpose? If the answer to those questions is a no, the action must be abandoned. Kant’s theory is an example of the deontological theory that was developed in the age of enlightenment. According to Elizabeth, these theories say that “the rightness or wrongness of actions does not depend on their consequences but on whether they fulfill our duty.”( Anscombe, 2001) Kant said that morality is built based on what he called “Hypothetical Imperatives”, but rather principles called “Categorical Imperatives” he referred to it as the supreme principle of morality. (Texas A&M University, n.d.) Cavico and Mujtaba reported on their book that Kant stated that morality

Morals possessed by members of the community determine the nature and the ways that a society operates. Moral elements of an individual are the belief that a person exercises when interacting with social and personal relationships which they are attached to in the society and dictates the manner in which a person lives. Arguably, moral aspects guide an individual towards performing good deeds because they are able to differentiate between good and evil actions in their life. Moral values make people develop their character, by the way,they are raised up and from religious teachings and ideology in shaping the people’s life. This paper evaluate moral values that are learnt from characters from the books Analects of Confucius and St. Augustine Confessions. There are numerous moral values that are learnt from these

Philosophers have postulated thousands of ethical outlooks regarding how humans should live and interact. While many of these outlooks overlap on certain ideas, their differences are what sets them apart. For example, the Socratic and Ubuntu ethical outlooks are similar as they both do not condone deception and believe that individuals should contribute to improve communities. Even with these similarities, though, the Socratic and Ubuntu outlooks have numerous contrasts, such as: the existence of a universal principle of virtue, and their respective pros and cons.