Kant's Ethics: Introduction, Overview, The Categorical Imperative

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INTRODUCTION TO KANT'S MORAL THEORY

1. All forms of Utilitarianism are teleological or consequentalist moral theories.

• The rightness of an action resides in the consequences achieved by the action.

2. If a theory of right action is NOT consequentialist then it is deontological.

• A deontological theory says that the moral value of an action does not only derive from the non-moral good brought about.

Some acts are wrong in themselves, independently of the consequences brought about.

EXAMPLE: It's wrong to kill an innocent person no matter how good the expected consequences are.

NOTE: A deontological theory NEED NOT say that consequences are always irrelevant

KANT'S MORAL THEORY: OVERVIEW

• Kant's moral theory is quite a radical deontological theory.

Kant claims that the consequences of an action are entirely IRRELEVANT to the moral value of the action.

Roughly, moral rightness in behaviour is a matter of acting CONSISTENTLY and RATIONALLY.

COMPARE:

"What's good for the goose is good for the gander"!
If I drink your beer then I can't complain when you drink mine (Rachels 2003, p. 128)

Acting RATIONALLY entails acting on a RATIONAL MOTIVE.

Rough Kantian criterion for right action

An act is right if and only if it is done according to a rational principle.

Kant's fundamental principle of morality is called the

THE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE

ARGUMENT 1: THE GOOD WILL

• Kant wants to discover the supreme moral principle underlying all moral judgements about obligations and duties.

He wants to find a principle that will tell us what our duties are, and explain why they are our duties.

• The first route he takes to this principle is through an analysis of the morally good person.
- this argument is supposed to be based in our 'ordinary moral awareness'.

[My analysis here draws extensively on that given by Sullivan 1994, ...