Kant's Duty Ethics

Kant being the deontologist he is, has an ethical view based on duty; that human act by a moral system from our duties and obligations. Kant claims that the only thing that intrinsically valuable is good will. Morality has to focus on the idea of having a good will; it’s the unconditional good.

If a woman walks out of a fast food restaurant and sees a homeless man and gives the man her food is this considered acting in accordance with duty? What about if a woman and a child walks out of a fast food restaurant and sees a homeless man and the woman tells the child to give the man your burger? Does this considered acting from duty or in? What is acting from duty, and in acting in accordance with duty anyway? Well, Immanuel Kant (studied philosophy) had a theory “the class of actions in accordance with duty must be distinguished from the class of actions performed from duty.” In English terms when acting from duty your intention is acting morally but, when acting in accordance with duty you will do the right thing for the wrong reason.

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher who was concerned with producing an ethical theory that was logical and absolute, and did not change depending on the situation, countering the views of John Locke and other empiricists of the time. His ethics are based on duty, rather than looking at the end product of an action. He thought that his theory was so important that it could be rivalled with the Copernican revolution, in that it would utterly change everyone’s concept of morality in the same profound manner. There are two main dictionary definitions of duty, obeying a superior, and obeying the moral law in doing the right thing, and Kant was concerned with the latter.

Immanuel Kant was an intelligent, well-known German philosopher during the Enlightenment era of the late 18th century. During this enthusiastic time period, there emerged a strong belief in the ability of human reason to help understand the world and solve its numerous problems- including ethical ones. Kant’s contribution to ethics has been very substantial, and although ethics is the field he’s had the most profound impact on, Kant also spent his time working in other areas, such as metaphysics and epistemology. Metaphysics is defined as “the branch of philosophy that deals with abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space” (Wikipedia). During his time spent studying epistemology, Kant investigated

1. Categorical Imperative are derived from a principle that every rational person must accept. As Kant stated, “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”(p.128) Which means that you will only act in the way that you would want the rest of the world to act. For instance, we will take lying. According to Kant lying is immoral no matter what and in any situation. So if we wanted to consider lying to someone, under the Categorical Imperative, we would need to think of the lye and its consequences. After you think of the lye and its consequences, you then need to think about if you would want the rest of the universe to be able to do the same thing at any given time. In the case of lying, lying is always immoral according to Deontology because it is not something that we would want people doing all the time. If we allowed people to lye all the time, it would be self-defeating and people would stop believing one another. In order for something to be moral in Deontology you have to think about the actions and the consequences of the action, and if you would allow the whole universe to do the action at any given time.

"Acting out of duty," according to Kant means performing the action that one wants to perform. It does not refer to what the final result will be after one performs a specific action because one does not have that type of control. If a person finds the need to do something or has a desire to do something, it is up to them to do what they have to do to put in the effort to carry out that task. Regardless of what the final result or outcome is, it is out of one's control. However, depending on how one carries out their actions, the final result mat somewhat reflect the actions that were carried out.

He also is very strongly opposed to lying. He takes a firm stance that any lie is

A common question, which is perhaps considered to be one of the most important questions within ethical discussion, centres around what morality can and does require from us. Kant’s contentious contribution to this debate begins with his argument that the most basic aim of moral philosophy is “to seek out” the foundational principle of a metaphysics of morals, and we can see him pursue this initially through the Groundwork. Within the Groundwork he aims to “establish the supreme principle of morality” (G392), and it is in his method of doing this that we first encounter the notion and importance of Duty. Kant’s general argument claims that only acts that are done from

Kant’s ethical theory is a theory by Immanuel Kant, a german philosopher that was introduced in the year of 1785 in his Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. Kant’s theory is mainly divided into two parts: categorical and hypothetical imperative. Categorical imperative, is an unconditional moral obligation which is binding in all circumstances and is not dependent on a person’s inclination or purpose (oxforddictionaries.com) whereas hypothetical imperatives is a moral obligatio that applies only if one desires the implicated goal (oxforddictionaries.com).

The disparity and divide among various levels of the society locally and globally are rooted in many factors. Unfortunately, growing effects of globalization appear to widen the abyss between the rich and poor, leaving no hopes that eventually the world could collectively and uniformly prosper and poverty would be completely eradicated. The natural resources are not evenly distributed on the various continents on the planet Earth. While some countries enjoy the wealth and prosperity as a result of abundant resources, such oil and natural gas reserves, others are stricken by natural disasters and persistent droughts, having no access to clean water, fertile soil, or any sustainable means of existence. Blaming eruption of violence and flourishing

One of the beautiful things about Kantian ethics is that it is based on the individual. The individual can decide if their actions are worth doing to another person by weighing if the person would want the action done to them. The Kantian point of view is completely different from the Utilitarian point of view because the Kantian point of view deals with the individual, whereas the Utilitarian point of view deals with the group and the needs of the group. When you hear the words “basic human rights” or the word “right,” normally that responds to the individual, and rights in many cases are from the Kantian viewpoint. For instance, when a police officer responds to someone in need, they are responding from a Kantian viewpoint – the

Just as science which uses logic to describe how the world should function. The basic moral rule you must follow for Kant is known as the Categorical Imperative. He describes in layman's terms, it's not so different from 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. Basically, you take the action you are thinking about doing, and try to see if you can imagine everyone doing it. What if every human being decided to take what wasn't theirs, it wouldn't be possible to have property, not to mention crime rate would pick up at a rapid rate. And if everyone lied all the time, there would be no point communicating, because the purpose of talking is to communicate truth. If you can't imagine everyone doing it, then it is not

In the late 18th century one of the most influential philosophers by the name of Immanuel Kant introduced the third major ethical philosophy, Deontology. The basis behind Deontology is that people are duty bound to act morally by certain standards despite the outcome. Determining whether a person’s actions are morally right involves look at the intent of the actions. Like other ethic theories, Deontologist applies the golden rule of treating other people the way you would want them to treat you. Deontology can be broken down into three different theories: agent-centered, patient centered, and contractualist. Each branch of Deontology can be traced back in some way to Immanuel Kant. Can Deontology be applied to today’s society?

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

As we discussed in class on Monday night, Kant’s main argument in the first section was dedicated to developing his belief that a rational beings have the capacity to reason and through this reason comes a beings ability to know what is right or wrong. Also, Kant revealed that a beings also have an inherent desire to keep themselves save physically and strive for happiness. Yet, these desires or needs can be fulfilled with pure instinct and that reason does not need to be used in order to reach those goals. More specifically Kant says, “The highest purposes of each individual are presumably self-preservation and the attainment of happiness.” “The fact that reason serves purposes that are higher than individual survival and private