Deontological Ethics and Emanuel Kant Essay

Describe Kants theory of Duty as the basis of moralisticity (33 marks).E cosmosuel Kant was a Ger gentleman Philosopher who lived in the late 18th century and was arguably one of the superlative counters of each time. He came up with a guide to morals in direct opposition to teontological or consequential theories. Many multitude pr inciteice his ethics as a guide to living a moral life, but what ex presently is Kants ethics? How did he believe we should case moral problems and how throw knocked out(p)(p) we apply it in our e genuinely day lives?alternatively of situation based theories his theory was deontological ethics. This is a very imperative and neutral puddle of ethics, which has been worked out using a rational thinking process. Kant believed that an estimable theory should be universalisable to be mor on the whole toldy ready. This room it moldiness be able to be applied to everyone tout ensemble over the cosmea disregarding of situations or caboodle. K ant believed for this to be possible it must contain some issue that was unconditionally and universally well(p).This must me some social occasion that is as such replete(p) which is reliable in itself, the highest proficient without qualification. This thing that determines the moral worth of our runions discount non be instrumentally respectable, something that provided eng overthrowers well behaved pending the results of the action or like some things such as happiness, which ar possible of do a situation morally worse. Kant believed that in that location was only one thing that is the sort out thing for us to do in any situation to make us morally correct. He express that a morally good man is a man of good entrust.Kant said that it was impossible to conceive anything in the world as good without qualification, except good will. For something to be of good will, it is not dependent on the commodity of what it effects or accomplishes. If it were, accordingly it could not be considered to be of unconditional value and intrinsic goodness for it would become a authority to an end not an end in itself. This leads us to therefore conclude that the consequences of any moral action are irrelevant.Kant describes the most important thing as beingness not what the act accomplishes but the motive behind the act ( clean Problems M Palmer). tho we whitethorn ask what precisely is the right motive to have? Kant simply states that a good wills only motive is to act for the saki of commerce. For an act to be universally, intrinsically good in itself, it must not be done because of its consequences, nor from self-interest, fear or as a means to an end, sooner only because it is our soul duty to do it. We should always act for duties sake simply because it is the right thing to do.We withdraw to be very dispatch as to what this specifically entails. Kant is saying that we can not do a moral act because of self-interest. This is understandable bec ause if we are doing it merely because we get something good out of it i.e. a reward or a good ca-ca then we are not doing it because we simply make love it is the right thing to do. However we besides need to be aware that this also includes the supposition that we can not do a moral act because it comes of course to us. We cannot do it because we derive plea authorized or enjoyment from doing something we enjoy is right or because we will feel good about ourselves if we help another(prenominal) people.This is because we are doing it indirectly for self-pleasure and this again is aggrieve, it does not include the presence of good will. Even if duty does coincides with what we naturally do, it does not make the act intrinsically good because we are doing it for another indicate besides doing it because we know it is our duty to do so. The fact that we happen to be doing what duty prescribes is however luck. It is wrong because the moment anything that duty says we should do becomes something we no longer enjoy, we wont do it. We cannot be for example honest as long as it pleases us to do so. Kant therefore concludes that this will fails to be good will, just as if they had acted from self-interest.So far Kant has told us that a morally good soul is a man of good will and that a man of good will is one that preserves where his duty lies. This is done for the very reason that it is the right thing to do and we have a responsibility to do it. It does not come from self-interest, calculating consequences, savouring at specific circumstances or from pleasure out of doing something for someone else. However we still need to know where our duty lies and what it is exactly that we are supposed to do to become man of good will who does what duty foretells him to do.We can be sure however that because it is a deontological argument, that we have an absolute principle to follow that does not work out at consequences of particular actions or changes in cert ain situations. It is absolute and definite and we can be sure that there are no exceptions to the rule. We also know that it has to be universably applicable to everyone irrespective of their situation (M Palmer Moral Problems). It therefore must contain something that all humans have in common so we can all know where our duty lies in different situations and Kant believed that this was Reason or rationality. He said that humans are rational beings, we are all capable of resolving problems using reason. We all have an innate intellectual power that we are born with which we can use to work out rationally where our duty lies.Kant believed that it was unacceptable to look at consequences of a particular action and then decide if we should do it or not because there is not enough evidence for us to make a proper decision from. Rather we need to look at the actual experience of moral obligation and this is the feeling of what we think we ought to do. Following what our duty prescribe s involves the idea that what we feel we ought to do is what is right. We should all have a feeling of moral obligation we all know the good and right thing to do so therefore we should do it. Therefore our duty becomes to obey our rational thinking which prescribes what the morally correct thing we ought to do is.However, we still have not established what the irresponsible principle of morality is. This one rule that we all must follow as a means to our rational thinking is something which Kant calls the compressed imperative. By imperative we mean something that tells us what actions would be good in the form of a command, usually using the words I ought. A categorical imperative therefore is an act that is solely good in itself or intrinsically good. The act is done because of the very disposition of the act itself and not to achieve something else as a means to it. It is done only for its induce sake and is free from ulterior beneficial motives.On the other make we have hy pothetical imperatives as an opposite. These acts are done because of a lust to achieve something else. For example if I exercise more I will become fitter. It tells us what acts are good as a means to something else. Palmer uses the example of telling the truth to illustrate the difference between the two. A categorical imperative would be tell the truth because it is good in itself and always is the right thing to do. The hypothetical imperative would be if you privation to be trusted, tell the truth because we are gaining something for ourselves by doing the right thing i.e. we are trusted.Once we know the distinctive feature of the principle of morality, we can analyse it more deeply so we can specifically know exactly what it is that defines a moral act as being good. Kant said that a morally good act had intrinsic value. This is where something is good and worthful in itself. The very nature of them makes them valuable regardless of anything else. For example Kant believed t hat human were of intrinsic value and therefore should be treated as an end in themselves.The opposite to this is therefore is instrumental valuable which is when something is good only because of what it can achieve and therefore is treated as a means to an end. Kant said this is not how we should treat other humans i.e. to use them to gain something for ourselves. He is saying that all humans should be treated equally and the same, we should treat everyone as we would treat ourselves. So for example, racial discrimination would always be wrong in the eyes of Kant. This links to the Christian idea of the Golden rule to love thy neighbour as thyself which Jesus, the last example of human goodness, instructed his people to follow.The final and key feature that Kant put emphasis on when concerning the categorical imperative was the acts ability to be universalisable. A key quote he used was I ought neer to act in such a way that I can also will that my maxim should become a un iversal justness. By this he is implying a method we can use to watch exactly what laws are good because they have moral worth. Kant stated that if the law can be applied to everyone in the world without being contradicted then it is good. For example we can universalise the maxim do not assassinate to all of society regardless of any situation without there being contradictions.By contradiction, Kant means one of two things, contradiction in the go away or Nature. If we cannot universalise an act because of either one of these contradictions then we must conclude that it is morally wrong.By contradiction in the law of nature, Kant is referring to rules that cannot be applied because they are straightforwardly self contradictory (M Palmer Moral Problems). The maxim or rule can not be applied universally because it contradicts the laws of nature meaning it physically is impossible to do. For example the maxim never speak until you are spoken to first is not possible to watch because if everyone applied it then no one would talk at all because we would always be waiting to be spoken to. From this we can agree that following this maxim would not be the good thing to do.The Contradiction in the will is not when something contridicts itself, rather a maxim that the person involved could not possibly wish to agree universalised (Palmer). We may understand that if it was applied universally we could be in the situation where we would not want everyone to apply it because it would help us if they didnt. For example the maxim do not give money to the poor because we may find ourselves one day, by dint of no fault of our own, poor and homeless and then we would want people to give money to us to help us survive.Kant gave one simplex rule to following universalisabiltiy and this was Act only on a maxim through which you can at the same time will that it be a universal law. With this he prescribed a reflection which we can all follow to see if a maxim is u niversalisable. in the first place acting we have to ask what rule we would be following if we carried out this act and this is the maxim. Then we are to ask ourselves if it was possible and would we would be unbidden for it to be followed by everyone at all times in all places. If it cannot then it is a contradiction in either the law of nature or in the will. Then quite simply, if it can be universalised do it, if not then dont.In conclusion we can see that to follow Kants deontological ethics we must act solely in uniformity to duty and for the sake of duty only (Palmer Moral Problems). It has been a very popular theory, which many people follow, sometimes without being aware of it. However we do need to ask is it of practical use in out lives today? Can we honestly say that it is useful, practical and realistic when making moral decisions? In my next section I shall be spirit at these questions in a little more depth to see if we can logically come up with an answer.