Duties, Rights, and Kant Ethics Dr. Jason M. Chang.

Duties, Rights, Duties, Rights, and Kantand Kant

EthicsDr. Jason M. Chang

Non-Consequentialist Ethics

• Morality is concerned with some intrinsic quality of the action (that is separate from consequences)

• Moral right and wrong is not located in the consequences the action brings about

Perverted senses of pleasure

Maximizing pleasure can lead to evil actions

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

“Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good without qualification, except the good will.”

The Good Will

• What is the good will?o A good will does not act on the

basis of emotion

o A good will acts exclusively from principle (i.e., or “from duty”)

Acting from Duty• Kant calls acting from

principle “acting from duty”

• Acting from duty involves doing the right thing on the basis of principle

• Acting from duty vs. acting according to duty

Motive of the Action

Kant’s idea of moral worth• Motive of the person performing the

action is what matters in assessing moral worth of act

• Action has moral worth if and only if it is performed from duty or principle

Motive of the Action

“A good will is good not because of what it performs or effects, not by its aptness for the attainment of some proposed end, but

simply by virtue of the [motive]”

“Even if it should happen that […] with its greatest efforts it should yet achieve

nothing, then, like a jewel, it would still shine by its own light”

Human as Rational Beings

• Humans beings have the capacity to act as rational beings

• There exists a moral law that is binding on all rational beings

Questions for Kant

• Is there a moral law that applies to all human beings as rational beings?

• If so, what would this moral law be?

The Nature of Laws

• Is there a moral law that applies to all human beings as rational beings?

• If so, what would this moral law be?

Law Binding on all Humans

Such a law would be a law that…

1. Rational human beings cannot escape

2. Is universal (i.e., all rational beings can accept it)

3. Is a categorical imperative

Law Binding on all Humans

Such a law would be a law that…

1. Rational human beings cannot escape

2. Is universal (i.e., all rational beings can accept it)

Act always in a way that we can will the principle of our action to become a universal

law.

PRINCIPLE OF MY ACTION

The Moral Law – First Formula

Principle of action is a universal law • Acceptable to you

• Acceptable to me

• Acceptable to all human beings

• Acceptable to all those affected by action

The Moral Law – First Formula

•Rational human beings have inherent dignity and unconditional worth

•“man and generally any rational being exists as an end in himself, not merely as a means to be arbitrarily used by this or that will […]”

Dignity and Worth of Human Beings

Act so as to treat humanity as an end and never as a means only.

The Moral Law – Second Formula

•Act in a way that respects the humanity, dignity, and unconditional worth of others

•This involves not treating others merely as an object for our purposes

The Moral Law – Second Formula