Kantian Ethics V For Vendetta

V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore, outlines a man’s quest for revenge and desire to change the society in which he lives in. The novel is set in England in 1997. The country has been consumed by war, famine and disease, and in response the government seizes the opportunity to gain complete control. England becomes a fascist dictatorship, offering the citizens a promise for peace and safety in return for their complete submission. The people resign to an enforced contentment, and decline to fight for their freedom.

V for Vendetta is one of the famous graphic novels in England which was written by Alan Moore and David Lloyd in 1988. Many people debated after they had read this book about V's actions -the main character and they keep debating it until now. Some people say that his actions are not justifiable. He is really a terrorist, not a hero as people think. He killed many people, even though, he forced Evey in the terrible situation, that is to make her become a prisoner. However, contrary to them, a lot of people else give their opinions that his actions are wholly justifiable. He helps people escape the bad things, helps them find freedom in the bad living and makes Evey becomes stronger day by day. To prove that V is a hero or really a terrorist,

So many people put their lives on the line for the sake of this country. It would be nice if, after all the damages they suffered, there was organization that could help them recover that bit of life they lost in war; that would not mislead them with false promises, or squander their money. The Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) has been one of the best-known organizations providing assistance to Iraq- and Afghanistan- war veterans for the last several years. But as time has gone one the organization has broken down, and is lately the focus of negative media attention after it CEO, Steven Nardizzi and COO, Al Girodano, who were accused of lavishly spending over $800 million in donations to the WWP. The following paper therefore analyzes the background

To continue, V for Vendetta was Allan Moore 's response to what he witnessed as a corrupt government under the rein of the late Margaret Thatcher. V for Vendetta is a graphic novel that demonstrates what would happen if humans fully committed themselves to the social contract, the law of nature, as illustrated by Thomas Hobbes. V for Vendetta is set in a

Moreover, even though Kant was not an advocate of violence or revolution; political actions in the pursuit of justice were admirable to him. It is very similar to the revolutionaries risking their lives in pursuit of their truth which ultimately reflects general interest and reason for the people. Therefore, V is considered a good guardian because he has reason and general interest for the people of Britain – taking violent measures in order to expose the government. For instance, V’s decision to supply the people of the city with the masks was to cause chaos amongst the government officials and show them how corrupt the system really was. Throughout the midst of all the chaos, V knew that the government officials had the right to enforce the maximum penalty on those who wore the mask, which was violence with lethal weapons.

In V for Vendetta,the characters V and Evey rebelled against the governement by killing government officials, and blowing up main government buildings such as the Parliament.

Set in late twentieth century United Kingdom, V for Vendetta highlights the subsequent devastation result of an overly powered government. Much like Rousseau’s claim of Man being “everywhere in chains,” the citizens in V for Vendetta are restrained in nearly every aspect of life. They are chained by the surveillance that watches over them, by the jobs they are and are not allowed to have, and by the places they are not allowed to go. We can observe how political power has negatively shaped this fictional dystopia, either by the eerie pedophilic nature of people in power, or by the nonchalant acts of sexual assault and undeserved homicide that seemingly take place constantly. These actions are justified by the government as means to protect the people’s freedom, similar to the same reason why Hobbes claims a government is essential. However, a reaction of these poor living conditions not considered by Rousseau is a rebellion. Rousseau’s belief of people in an overly controlling government is that they would willingly accept the control in respect of their security. The main character “V” in V for Vendetta, refutes this idea. Wearing the previously mention Guy Fawkes as a mask, V is making a symbolic statement on his view of government control. By imitating the very person who attacked parliament nearly four hundred years ago, V is successfully showing his hatred of government in a violent and destructive way. These calculated attacks refer back to Hobbes’ belief of every person being equal. Though this rebellion would clearly result in execution, V is choosing to be free, and is forcing his fellow citizens to be free as

V for Vendetta, associated with DC Comics, sets the film in England; during the Norsefire regime. During this oppressive regime ruled by Adam Sutler, people who were homosexual and practice religions other than Christianity were directed to concentration camps. V, being thrown in the concentration camp, was tortured and experimented. Consumed by his vengeance, V becomes an anarchist and believes that “the only verdict is vengeance.” By wearing the mask of Guy Fawkes, V seeks to get vengeance on those who have done him immoral and free England from the Norsefire regime to point out that, “people should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people”.

In the film Inglorious Bastards, Nazis soldiers murdered Shoshanna’s Jewish family. Luckily, she was able to escape the massacre. She then established a new identity for herself and hid in plain sight. Soon she was offered the chance to host a film event in which Hitler and many other Nazis would attend. So, she planned to locked them inside the theater, and set it on fire.

Kantian’s would disagree with “Mercy killing”, because they are lawful abiding citizens that value absolute duty to the laws, therefore; lying and especially killing is not acceptable to them because it is taking the life of someone else and they would view it as murdering them. It would set new precedence and new behaviors that murdering is okay, creating a new universal law. Because whatever you do or however you act, creates a new universal law. Even the golden rule fails here, because if we ask the question, what if everyone did that? It would lead to catastrophe because everyone would be killing everyone. Although, Kantian’s do believe killing is immoral, and wrong, and are against Mercy killing, Kant’s Lex talionis rule, an eye for an

Kant and Aristotle disagree over the classification of virtue and moral worth, Kant rather answers ‘what kind of character is most deserving of moral esteem’ in comparison to Aristotle’s ‘what kind of character is the best for a person to have.’ Kantian virtue ethics gives great prominence to a constant ‘good will:’ ‘motive of respect for the moral law.’ Prominence is not given to an end-state such as pleasure or happiness by Kant, but rather ‘a state of character which becomes the basis for all of ones actions.’

“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.

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

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

Kantian ethics emphasizes on two conditions for an action to be morally good. The first, that an action only has moral worth if it is done for the sake of duty. The second is that an action is considered right if its maxim can be willed as a universal law. Kantian ethics then is working on the basis of duty and universality. In failing to recognize the multiple aspects of morality, Kantian ethics shows inadequacy as a moral theory. (Hinman, 2008)