Summary KANTIAN ETHICS NOTES AND EXEMPLAR ESSAY PARAGRAPHS

KANTIAN ETHICS AND DEONTOLOGY
KANT’S BELIEFS
 Not religious, but recognized the importance of commandments
 Moral knowledge is from reason
 Concerned with epistemology and human worth
 Morality is based on concepts and framework
 “Act only according to the maxim by which you can at the
same time will that it should become a universal law”
Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals
DEONTOLOGY
 To follow “duty”
 Focused on Intention, not purpose
 Goodness is in the action, not outcome
 Opposite of Consequentialism
DUTY
 “To do good to others, where one can, is Duty”
 To follow duty is to do (1) follow Good will (2) in accordance with
reason
 We are good people if we follow duty WITHOUT EMOTION and
WITHOUT OWN DESIRED ENDS
 “The Good Shopkeeper” example of rationally following the maxim
of honesty
GOOD WILL
 Good will is to act morally with no self interest
 The Duty of Virtue
 GOOD WILL IS ALWAYS GOOD BECAUSE IT IS A PRIORI
 Good will “would shine forth like a precious jewel”
FREE WILL
 Our ability to reason makes us better than animals who follow their
desires
 We use our free will to act rationally and therefore follow duty
 Free will gives is our WORTH
 Kant thought we should act with Autonomy rather than being told
with Heteronomy (religious commandments)
HYPOTHETICAL IMPERATIVE
 To follow imperatives to act towards a self-desired purpose or goal
 Follows “if” and “ought”
 NOT REQUIRED

,  It is not MORAL as we are not following a universalizable maxim
 If I want to study hard and become a doctor, I ought to take hard
science a-levels. But not everyone should take hard science a-levels
because then we will all struggle to become doctors
CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE
 Absolutist
 IT MAKES LOGICAL SENSE TO BE MORAL AND FOLLOW RULES
 There is no reason to commit a bad action because you would be
okay with everyone doing that action. And if everyone is doing that
action, you wouldn’t feel the need to do it anymore. Its one big
contradiction.
 (1) Formula of Universalizability: If you do an action, you must be
okay with everyone else doing it to. Otherwise, it is not moral.
 (2) Formula of means: Do not treat others like a means to an end
(use them for a self-desired purpose) as everyone has intrinsic value
as a rational and free being
 (3) Formula of the Kingdom of Ends: Base universal rules to be
universalized and considerate for all people in a society to ensure
progression. We are always SETTING AN EXAMPLE TO OTHERS.
PERFECT VS IMPERFECT DUTY
 Perfect duties are always good in application (e.g., not lying)
 Imperfect duties are good, but can be flexibly applied in the given
time and space ( being nice to people)
MORAL KNOWLEDGE IS A PRIORI SYNTHETIC
 A priori as it is based on UNIVERSAL REASON
 Synthetic as it needs additional EXPERIENCE to decide if something
is wrong
THREE POSTULATES
Explains why we act with practical reason.
 Freedom: Rational creatures are free, but we must use this freedom
to act with duty.
 Immortality: Our soul is immortal, and it may be impossible to attain
improvement or summum bonum in this life. There must be another
life.
 God: God must exist so he can ensure summum bonum is achieved
by people and ARRANGED accordingly
SUMMUM BONNUM
 Perfect and supreme happiness
 Initially coined by Cicero
 Basically, means the good life