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The Categorical Imperative

The Categorical Imperative. Who’s to blame?. Kantian theory on the categorical imperative. Every action has an underlying maxim A maxim is the rule you act on when carrying out an action

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The Categorical Imperative

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  1. The Categorical Imperative Who’s to blame?

  2. Kantian theory on the categorical imperative • Every action has an underlying maxim • A maxim is the rule you act on when carrying out an action • E.g. if I stab someone who breaks into my house I am acting on the maxim “If someone breaks into my house, I must attack them”. • Criticisms?

  3. Criticisms of this idea • How can the maxim be determined? • Do people necessarily act on only one?

  4. The categorical imperative (part 1) • Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law. • Do not act on a maxim that does cannot display universalisability • Do not act on a maxim that you could not wish to be universal

  5. The categorical imperative (part 2) • Respect the goals of human beings rather than merely using them for your own purposes • Don’t treat a person as an object • Don’t use a person only to get what you want (they must benefit as much as you) • Don’t trick or deceive someone to achieve your ends

  6. Examples • Murder – • you could not reasonably wish for everyone to be able to kill anyone, therefore you should not kill people yourself • Resource use – • everyone cannot physically take double their share of resources, therefore you should not (notice that this is a practical statement from which a moral decision is drawn)

  7. Criticisms? • Honesty – a murderer asks where your friend is hiding, what would a good Kantian acolyte do? • Well surely this would mean that as we would seek for honesty to be universal, then we should tell him the truth. • What was Kant’s response?

  8. Kant’s response • He agreed with it, stating that morality is not defined by the outcome of actions • However, it is not necessary to lie, merely to tell the truth and say you cannot reveal it as it will harm your friend. • This comes back to the criticism of determining the maxim you are working on

  9. Debate points • Does the outcome affect the morality of the action? • Does the outcome influence the moral responsibility of the individual?

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