1. Chapter Eight:
Kant and Deontological
Theories
For Deontological theories it is not the consequences
that determines the rightness or wrongness of an act
but certain features in the act itself or in the rule of
which the act is a token
2. Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Absolutist and a Rationalist
Influenced by:
His
Parents’ Pietism
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s work on human
freedom
The debate between rationalism and
empiricism
Natural law intuitionist theories
3. Rationalism and Empiricism
Rationalism: pure reason could tell us how
the world is, independent of experience.
Empiricism: denied that we have any innate
ideas and argued that all knowledge comes
from experience. Our minds are a tabula rasa,
an empty slate, upon which experience writes
her lessons
4. Act- and Rule-Intuitionism
Act-intuitionism: each act as a unique ethical
occasion and holds that we must decide what is
right or wrong in each situation by consulting
our conscience or our intuitions or by making a
choice apart from any rules
6. The Categorical Imperative
A command to perform actions that are
necessary of themselves without reference to
other ends.
It contrasts with Hypothetical Imperatives
which command actions not for their own sake,
but for some other good.
Moral duties command categorically.
Actions are only morally valuable if done by
a good will.
7. The Principle of
the Law of Nature
Act as though the maxim of your action were
by your will to become a universal law of
nature.
8. The Principle of Ends
So act as to treat humanity, whether in your
own person or in that of any other, in every
case as an end and never as merely a means
9. The Principle of Autonomy
So act that your will can regard itself at the
same time as making universal law through its
maxims
10. The Principle of the Law of
Nature: Four Examples
Making a Lying Promise
Committing Suicide
Neglecting One's Talent
Refraining from Helping Others
11. Counterexamples to the Principle
of the Law of Nature
Counterexample 1: Mandating Trivial
Actions
Counterexample 2: Endorsing Cheating
Counterexample 3: Prohibiting Permissible
Actions
Counterexample 4: Mandating Genocide
12. The Problem of
Exceptionless Rules
Kant's categorical imperative yields
unqualified absolutes. The rules it generates
are universal and exceptionless
Ross and Prima Facie Duties
Kant and the Prima Facie Solution
13. The Problem of
Posterity
Kant with his strong emphasis on particular
rational people would have a particularly
difficult time generating principles that would
require duties to future agents
Kant seems to require identifiable people as
the objects of our duties
