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Doing the right thing - What Matters is the motive / Immanuel Kant

18 important questions on Doing the right thing - What Matters is the motive / Immanuel Kant

If you believe in universal human rights, you are probably not utilitarian. Why not?

If all human beings are worthy of respect, regardless who they are of where they live, then it's wrong to treat them as mere instruments of the collective happiness.

Kant offers an alternative account of duties and rights, one of the most powerful and influential account any philosopher has produced. Describe Kant's case for rights.

It does not depend on the idea that we own ourselves, or on the claim that our lives and liberties are a gift from God. Instead, it depends on the idea that we are rational beings, worthy of dignity and respect.

Why does Kant reject utilitarianism / what is his objection to maximizing happiness?

Because determining on a calculation about what will produce the greatest happiness, leaves rights vulnerable. Trying to derive moral principles from desires we happen to have is the wrong way to think about morality. Just because something gives many people pleasure, doesn't make it right. The mere (enkele) fact that the majority favors a certain law, doesn't make the law just.

Kant had a devastating critique on utilitarianism. It argues that morality is not about maximizing happiness, it is about respecting persons as ends in themselves. What offered Kant? (Groundwork)

A powerful basis for what the 18th century revolutionaries called 'the rights of man', and what we in the early 21st century called universal human rights.

We can arrive at the 'supreme principle of morality' through the exercise of what Kant calls 'pure practical reason'. Explain this.

Every person is worthy of respect, because we are rational being (capable of reason). We are also autonomous: capable of acting and choosing freely. We have the capacity for reason and freedom and this is common to human beings. We can feel pleasure and pain. We are sentient (gevoelens) and rational creatures.

What does Kant mean with sentient creatures? And relate this to Bentham.

Kant means that we respond to our senses, feelings. So Bentham was half right: we like pleasure and dislike pain, but we are not our sovereign masters. Kant argues that reason can be sovereign, but when reason governs our will, we are not driven by the desire to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Our capacity of reason is bound up with our capacity for freedom. Taken together, these capacities make us distinctive and set us apart from mere animal existence.

To better learn what the 'supreme principle of morality' is, we can approach Kant's answer by seeing how he connects three big ideas. Explain this.

Those ideas are: morality, freedom and reason. Kant explains these ideas though a series of contrasts or dualism's. You have to notice the parallel among these contrasting terms:

1 Morality contrast; duty vs inclination (lust?)

2 Freedom contrast: autonomy vs heteronomy (afh. van wetten/regels)

3 Standpoints: Intelligible vs sensible realms (sferen)

4 Reason contrast: categorical imperatives vs hypothetical imperatives (im. = something of vital importance).

To make sense of Kant's moral philosophy, we need to understand what he means by freedom. What is this?

Kant: when we, like animals, seek pleasure or the avoidance of pain, we aren't really acting freely. We are acting as the slaves of our appetities and desires. Because whenever we are seeking to satisfy our desires, everything we do is for the sake of some end given outside us.

> F.e. do you drink Sprite because of your genes of advertising? According to Kant: whenever my behavior is biologically or socially conditioned, it is not truly free, To act freely is to act autonomously. To act autonomously, is to act according to a law I give myself.

The opposite of autonomy is heteronomy (freedom contrast). How can you act heteronomy?

When you act according to determinations given outside you (f.e. if you drop something, it's not falling freely but its governed by the laws of nature> gravity). To act freely is not to choose the best means to a given end; it is to choose the end itself, for its own sake. A choice that human beings can make and a product/and most animals, cannot.

> I am only free when my will is determined autonomously.

According to Kant, the moral worth of an action consist not in the consequences that flow from it. Out of what does it consist?

The intention from which the act is done. What matters is the motive. Doing to right thing because it's right, not for some ulterior (hidden) motive. Doing the right thing, for the right reason: any action has to conform to the moral law if it is to be morally good.

When does our action lacks moral worth?

If we act out of some motive other than duty, such as self-interest. Not only for self-interest but for any attempt to satisfy our wants, desires, preferences and appetites. These kind of motives are 'motives of inclination' (natural urge). The motive of duty is doing to right thing for the right reason. What matters is that the good deed is done because it's the right thing to do, whether or not doing it gives us pleasure.

Kant distinguishes two ways that reason can command the will: categorical vs hypothetical imperatives (reason contrast). Explain those 2:

-Hypothetical: use instrumental reason: if you want X then do Y. If you want good business reputation, then treat your customers honestly.

-Categorical (unconditional) is the contrast of hypothetical (conditional). If the action is represented as good in itself, and therefore as necessary for a will which of itself accords with reason, then the imperative is categorical.

> To be free in the sense of autonomous requires to act not out of hypothetical imperative, but out of categorical imperative.

There are two types of categorical imperatives. Describe those 2.

1 Universalize your maxim. Maxim = a rule or principle that gives the reason for your action (f.e. loan money, promise to repay, even if you can't = morally wrong and at odds with categorical imperative (op gespannen voet). You are used as a mean, not as an end).

2 Treat persons as ends: humanity has an absolute value: as an end in itself. A man doesn't exist as a means. Never treat humanity simple as means, but always as the same time as an end.

What does justice requires according to Kant?

Justice requires us to uphold the human rights of all persons, regardless where they live of how well we know them, simply because they are human beings, capable of reason and therefore worthy of respect.

Describe the vision of Kant regarding Justice, Freedom, Moral worth:

-Kant rejects the approach for maximizing welfare (uti) and for promoting virtue (Ari) and neither respect human freedom. Therefore, Kant's approach connects justice and morality to freedom.
-Freedom = to act freely = to act autonomously = to act according to a law I gave myself (not according to the dictates of nature/social convection). Heteronomy is the contrast of this.
-Moral worth consists not in the consequences that flow from it, but in the indention/the motive.

Describe freedom according to Kant, who sees freedom as one of the most important issues:

1 Without freedom, no choices. You have to obbey the rules.
2 People (rational creatures) have the freedom to think/make choices.

What would Kant think of suicide/murder and CSR (some examples)?

Murder = not respecting others (suicide: not respecting yourself). Breivik, didn't respect others (duh...)

CSR: company CSR because of marketing: not morally good according to Kant. Its not free will: its listing to marketing. Its morally good when the company wants to do it themselves: don't hurt others/environment. CSR is always good, but the 'why' determines if its morally good.

Hannah Arendt: during WWII you had to obey what the nazi/regime/government dictated. What was Arendt's opinion?

You didn't have a free choice, so you could not determine if people are wrong or right.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

Justice : what's the right thing to do? | 9780141041339 | Michael J Sandel

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Topics that are related to Doing the right thing - What Matters is the motive / Immanuel Kant

Sandel: Justice whats the right thing to do. Doing the right thing

Doing the right thing - What Matters is the motive / Immanuel Kant

18 important questions on Doing the right thing - What Matters is the motive / Immanuel Kant

If you believe in universal human rights, you are probably not utilitarian. Why not?

Kant offers an alternative account of duties and rights, one of the most powerful and influential account any philosopher has produced. Describe Kant's case for rights.

Why does Kant reject utilitarianism / what is his objection to maximizing happiness?

Kant had a devastating critique on utilitarianism. It argues that morality is not about maximizing happiness, it is about respecting persons as ends in themselves. What offered Kant? (Groundwork)

We can arrive at the 'supreme principle of morality' through the exercise of what Kant calls 'pure practical reason'. Explain this.

What does Kant mean with sentient creatures? And relate this to Bentham.

To better learn what the 'supreme principle of morality' is, we can approach Kant's answer by seeing how he connects three big ideas. Explain this.

To make sense of Kant's moral philosophy, we need to understand what he means by freedom. What is this?

The opposite of autonomy is heteronomy (freedom contrast). How can you act heteronomy?

According to Kant, the moral worth of an action consist not in the consequences that flow from it. Out of what does it consist?

When does our action lacks moral worth?

Kant distinguishes two ways that reason can command the will: categorical vs hypothetical imperatives (reason contrast). Explain those 2:

There are two types of categorical imperatives. Describe those 2.

What does justice requires according to Kant?

Describe the vision of Kant regarding Justice, Freedom, Moral worth:

Describe freedom according to Kant, who sees freedom as one of the most important issues:

What would Kant think of suicide/murder and CSR (some examples)?

Hannah Arendt: during WWII you had to obey what the nazi/regime/government dictated. What was Arendt's opinion?

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