Kant
Deontology
Categorical Imperative
Immanuel Kant 1724-1804
Profile:
 Dead
 German
 Time of Berkley,
Rousseau, Hume,
Bentham
 Not a fan of music or
arts – preferred maths
and logic
Immanuel Kant 1724-1804
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Lived his entire life in
birth town of
Konigsberg
Boring – so regular
housewives used to set
their watches by him
Key Texts
Critique of Practical
Reason
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Metaphysics &
epistemology
Tough!
Ethics
Easier
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Critique of Judgement
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Beauty
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Groundwork for the
Metaphysics of morals
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Try to read
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Critique of Pure
Reason
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Epistemology
Rationalist
Empiricist
(Reason = knowledge)
(Experience = knowledge)
Plato
Descartes
Leibniz
Spinoza
Aristotle
Hume
Locke
Mill
Kant wants to synthesise these two
opposing views
Key question: “What are the necessary
conditions for knowledge?”
Reason + Experience = Knowledge
Human mind imposes structures on the world
in order to make sense of it
Eg: time, space and causality
Short Interlude…
• Deontology
• “Deon” = “Duty”
• Utilitarianism=?
• Teleological/ Consequentialist
• Bentham et al concerned with consequence
• Kant concerned with action, intention
Kant’s Morality
Morals have an absolute value
- absolutist, realist, objectivist
 They’re not ‘out there’
 Morality is inside of us,
we all have a sense of
moral duty
 Wants a universal
moral law
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The Good Will
The only thing of absolute value is:
 Intrinsically good
 Good without qualification
- Happiness is neither
“Nothing in the world can possibly be
conceived which could be called good
without qualification except a good will”
(Groundwork)
God, Immortality and Free Will
The idea of God is necessary for morality
to be intelligible
 God is the guarantee that if you do the
right thing you will yield the right results
 There must be life after death – you might
not see the results of your good actions in
this life
 If all our actions are pre-determined then
morality doesn’t apply to us
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Hypothetical Imperatives - Categorical Imperatives
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“If..,then you
should…”
Factual relation
between a goal and
how to achieve it
Utilitarian “If you want
maximum happiness
you should not
murder”
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“You should…”
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An obligation
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Kant “You should not
murder”
-morality has nothing to do
with inclinations, personal
gains or individual
circumstances
The Categorical Imperative
Categorical because it is unconditional
 Imperative because it is a command
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Categorical Imperative = Unconditional Command
*Because we possess rational wills
*Without considering the personal benefits
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Where in religion do you see
‘categorical imperatives’?
1st Maxim
"Act only according to that maxim whereby
you can - at the same time - will that it
should become a universal law.“
 Universalisability
 “do to others as you would have done to
yourself”
 You should only do something if you would
be prepared for everyone else to do it
 Some examples?
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Another Short Interlude…
• Perfect vs. Imperfect duties
• Perfect duty = not to act in maxims that
result in logical contradictions when we
universalise them
(ie. “It’s ok to steal”)
• Imperfect duty = to act by maxims that
we would want to be universalised
(somewhat dependent on subjective
preferences)
2nd Maxim
"Act in such a way that you treat humanity,
whether in your own person or in the person
of any other, always at the same time as an
end and never merely as a means to an
end”
 You have a duty not to use people for your
own end.
 If Hannah knew Angelina Jolie…
 Examples?
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3rd (and final) Maxim
"Therefore, every rational
being must so act as if he
were - through his maxim –
always a legislating member
in the universal kingdom of
ends."
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Some examples…
Kant was always critical of the use of
examples as ‘moral yardsticks’ – they tend
to rely on feelings rather than reason
 However…..
 Deception, theft, suicide, laziness, charity,
cruelty to animals
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Synthetic A Priori
We have free will
 We do not follow pre-determined laws
 We must determine a set of laws by which
we will act
 Are these laws Analytic or Synthetic?
 A Priori or A Posteriori?
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Last Short Interlude…
• Hume: Is/Ought problem
• You can’t jump from an ‘is’ to an ‘ought’
• You can’t jump from descriptive to
prescriptive
• Hume’s Fork
• Analytic-a priori- necessary
• Synthetic-a posteriori-contingent
Bending Hume’s Fork…
A Brief Summary
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Deontology
Absolutist/ Realist
God and Free Will
Categorical Imperative (unconditional
command)
Universalisability
People as ends not means
Synthetic A Priori
Useful Sources:
Commentary
 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kantmoral/#CatHypImp
Texts
 http://evansexperientialism.freewebspace.com/kant_grou
ndwork_metaphysics_morals01.htm
 http://www.sparknotes.com/