Adam Leshok

PHIL 277

Huston

5 October 2016

Ethics Exam 1

Kants ethical theory, at its core, explains how it is a persons motivation for doing

something or their purpose for acting in a certain way is what determines if a person is good or

bad. Kant also explains in his way of thinking that it is not important what the result of a persons

action is, or even what the persons intent of the consequences of the action are, the important

part is what motivates someone to act in the way that they do. If a person is motivated by

morality and wants to do a good thing for the sake of doing something good then they can have

moral worth and be seen as a good person. Although if their actions are done for the wrong

reasons or for selfish reasons then they will not be seen as a good person. For example if

someone donates to a charity because they are wanting to help an important cause then that is

seen to have moral value and that person can be viewed as a good person. However, if a person

donates to a charity but only does it because they are wanting to show off to the people around

them or want to be able to brag about it, then that person would not be seen as a good person and

their actions would be viewed as immoral. In short, a good person is good for goodness sake.

Kants belief was that their was a main principle for morality which he called the

categorical imperative. Kant gave 2 main ways to explain the principle of the categorical

imperative. The first way Kant described the categorical imperative explained that one should

only act on rules or principles that could be universal law. This meaning, someone shouldnt do

something if they do not believe that everyone else should be able to do the same thing. This also
means that you should not make any exceptions just for yourself. The second way Kant describes

the categorical imperative is that you should act to treat yourself and the rest of humanity as

something of value and not just as of means. This explaining that you should not use other

people or allow yourself to be used. You must treat other people as if they are real and have

feelings, can operate on their own and set goals for themselves, not just use other people for

selfish gain or as an object or see them as less important than yourself in decision making.

From the second explanation of the categorical imperative two duties can be taken out of

it and applied, the two duties being perfect duties and imperfect duties. Perfect duties are more

absolute. From the second version of the categorical imperative we can take away that we have

the duty to ourselves to not self harm in any way, and we have the duties to other people to not

break the principle to treat people as people and not use them by telling the truth, not stealing,

killing, breaking promises, ect. These duties are seen as fully necessary and do not have any

exceptions but to follow them. Kant also comes out with the imperfect duties with are less set in

stone, these duties are more situational, it explains that although we all seek our own interests,

we should also help others in theirs. It is not what we must to but more of what we should do,

and shows us to act on maxims, or principles to act on, that will encourage and help other people

achieve their goals.

The main criticism to have with Kants ethical theory is that it is too absolute and has no

exceptions to act in a way that really may be best. For example, a simple principle often given is

do not lie, but if your wife asked you if you thought she was getting fat (and she really was

getting fat), by directly following Kants theory you would have to tell her the truth and call her

fat, which although is morally correct, it may not quite be the correct decision to make in the

situation. Kant, however, says that this is what you should be doing in all cases, even if you were
lying to save someones life you still can not do it because it was wrong, according to Kants

theory. This makes the world run much more difficult on a day to day basis because it is much

more difficult because more problems will be caused and bad things will just be allowed to

happen just in the name of being morally correct, which for most people is not a good enough

reason to cause a significantly higher number of conflicts, like the conflict between you and your

wife after you call her fat.