An Introduction to Ethics

Week Three: Deontology and Kant

Kant: A (very quick) Biog Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804)

*Perhaps* the most influential philosopher.

Scottish grandfather. Born in Konigsberg – never travelled further than 10 miles from the city.

People used to set their clocks by Kant’s daily walk. Highly predictable, very keen on routine. Never married.

Aimed to resolve disputes between rationalists and empiricists. In doing so, Kant provides an answer to the problem of free will (important for later).

Kant: A (very quick) Biog“Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no

straight thing was ever made”

(Idea for a General History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose )

Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the mind of thought is drawn to them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.

(Critique of Practical Reason)

Kant: A (very quick) BiogFew debates in modern moral philosophy make no

reference to Kant (eventually). Kant wrote the books on Epistemology, Metaphysics, Aesthetics, and (of course) Ethics.

Most attention given to four works:

1. Critique of Pure Reason

2. Critique of Practical Reason

3. Critique of Judgment

4. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals

Kant’s Major Works

Kant’s Major Works

Kant – Quick IntroMoral worth determined by consequences?

Kant – Quick IntroMoral worth determined by consequences?

Motivation of agent determines moral worth (first big difference with Utilitarianism).

What’s the ‘right sort’ of motivation? Hatred? Pursuit of power?

The aim of the Groundwork is to establish the ‘moral law’ (the principle we should use to guide our actions)…

Kant“It is impossible to conceive anything at all in

the world, or even out of it, which can be taken as good without qualification, except a good will. Intelligence, wit, judgment, and any other talents of the mind we may care to name, or courage, resolution, and constancy of purpose, as qualities of temperament, are without doubt good and desirable in many respects; but the can also be extremely bad and hurtful when the will is not good which has to make use of these gifts of nature […]”

KantWhat does it mean to be ‘good without

qualification’?

What is meant by a ‘good will’?

KantWhat does it mean to be ‘good without

qualification’?

Meaning: Good without needing to be related to anything else. Context independent. Intrinsic goodness.

Contrast with prima facie goods. Goodness as a means (utility?). Gifts of nature (intelligence, wit), gifts of temperament (courage, resolution), gifts of fortune (wealth, power).

‘The good chess player’

Kant“Moderation in affections and passions, self-control, and sober reflexion are not only good in many respects: they may even seem to constitute part of the inner worth of a person. Yet they are far from being properly described as good without qualification (however unconditionally they have been commended by the ancients). For without the principles of a good will they may become exceedingly bad; and the very coolness of a scoundrel makes him, not merely more dangerous, but also immediately more abominable in our eyes than we should have taken him to be without it.”

What is meant by a ‘good will’?

KantWhat is meant by a ‘good will’?

Two things to note straight away:

1. Good in any circumstances in which it is found.

2. Only a good will is good without qualification.

Counterintuitive to think that some goods are good independent of context?

‘aim at doing good’. (will = volition/striving)

KantH.J. Paton on Kant’s ‘good will’:

“[…] the harm done by a stupid good man was due to his stupidity and not to his goodness: he [Kant] certainly seems to hold that a good will as such cannot issue in wrong actions. […] If the goodness of a good will is not derived from the goodness of the ends at which it aims, still less can it be derived from success in attaining these ends”

(The Categorical Imperative, Pg. 40 – 41, 43)

To paraphrase: ‘The road to hell is not paved with good intentions.’ Contra St Bernard de Clairveaux (L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs) (Hell is full of good wishes and desires).

KantQuick distinctions

Immediate inclinations vs duty

Hypothetical imperatives vs categorical imperatives

Kant’s ‘fair’ shopkeeper

1. Charges a fair price to guarantee future business

2. Charges a fair price because he loves his customers

3. Charges a fair price because duty demands it.

KantMoral content derived from motivation – one has

to act from the motive of duty.

Not enough to act in conformity with duty (think of donating to the homeless to win approval from a love interest &c.).

“Yet I maintain that in such a case an action of this kind, however right and however amiable it may be, has still no genuinely moral worth.”

KantAll very well and good, but what is duty?

“Duty is the necessity to act out of reverence for the law”

Obedience to the law, because it is the law. The action ought to be done – whether you want to or not.

Bindingness of morality.

Reason on its own is motivating? (Hume doesn’t think so…)

Back to the good will – the good will is one which acts from the motive of duty, not self-interest or inclination.

KantReverence for the law, but what is the law?

“But what kind of law can this be the thought of which, even without regard to the results expected from it, has to determine the will if this is to be called good absolutely and without qualification?”

KantThe Categorical Imperative

“I ought never to act except in such a way that I can also will that my maxim should become a universal law.”

“Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law”

Lying promise example. Self undermining. Internally contradictory.

KantThe Categorical Imperative

Tests prospective actions. I am planning to do x for reason y – can I will that I should x for reason y as a universal law?

Permitted Vs. Required.

CI on its own only gives you what is permitted?

What duty requires is derived from reason alone. To act rationally is to act morally.

Kant‘An end in itself’…

Means vs ends

Hypothetical imperatives take the form: ‘if you want G, do x.

Categorical Imperatives take the form: ‘Do x’. There is no instrumental function here.

KantThe absolute value of humanity.

“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 a means, but always at the same time as an end”

Do not treat other as instrumental in obtaining your goals. (Kant contra prostitution and pornography? Kant on war?)

Promote the development of others (as persons). (Kant on war (again)?)

KantKant’s ‘illustrations’ (examples)

Suicide

False promises

KantThe Formula of Autonomy

“The will is not merely subject to the law, but is so subject that it must be considered as also making the law for itself and precisely on this account as first of all subject to the law (of which it can regard itself as the author).