Kant s Categorical Imperative Of The Modern Era - 826 Words

Emmanuel Kant was an influential philosopher and strong proponent of the modern era. Besides his large contribution to epistemology and metaphysics, his work in ethics was just as substantial. Kant’s ethics came to propose an objective morality, where moral judgments is not only true according to a person s subjective view. He believed the moral worth of an action is not determined by its consequence but the motive behind it. Through Kant’s ethics, he demonstrates this duty through his unconditional moral principle, the categorical imperative. The categorical imperative expresses that morality is not about the outcome (good or bad), but the right action regardless of the outcome. It is the responsibility to do one s duty for its own sake and not in pursuit of one’s own desire. One formulation of Kant’s categorical imperative instructs us to act only in such a way that â€Å"I can also will that my maxim should become a universal law.† Before going into the formulation, a maxim for Kant is just not a rule for how to act but a middle stage between experience and the categorical imperative. Kant describes this as a subjective rule, that is, a rule that is deliberated at the subjective level. Consider a case of human interaction, in which one has to decide his behavior in the form, â€Å"X does such an action to Y†. We may ask the moral question â€Å"should X do such an action to Y?† According to Kant, X response cannot derive from desire or pleasure but rather give a deliberate andShow MoreRelatedKantian Ethics And The Categorical Imperative Essay1581 Words   |  7 PagesReason Book, I, Immanuel Kant, a prominent late Enlightenment Era German philosopher discusses his most famous ethical theory, the â€Å"Categorical Imperati ve.† The â€Å"Categorical Imperative† is a proposed universal law in stating all humans are forbidden from certain actions regardless of consequences. Although this is the general definition of this ethical theory, the Categorical Imperative† exists in two above formulations, A strict interpretation of Categorical Imperative and a more liberal interpretationRead MoreHuman cloning and Immanuel Kant1114 Words   |  5 Pagesstrikes many people as morally wrong. The basic question is: how does society determine what s right? 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