Explain Kant's Categorical Imperative
A. Explain Kant’s Categorical Imperative
The Categorical Imperative was a deontological, absolute, normative and secular theory put forward by Immanuel Kant in the 18th century. Kant’s theory was deontological which means that it judges morality based on a person’s action rather than the outcome, it is also secular, this means that , even though Kant is religious, his theory is not, his theory is judgemental which means the theory is normative and it is also absolute which means that Kant believes that everyone in the world should believe in his theory.
Moral Law can be achieved through reasoning our senses and is equivalent to “Duty + Good Will = Moral Law”. Kant’s theory was based on duty, which is a moral obligation/ responsibility with no benefit to yourself, it means that if you have the chance to do something to help someone it is your moral obligation to do that, “ought implies can” – Immanuel Kant, this means that if there is something that you should do, it implies that you can do it. Kant argued that if you have a good will to do something then the act is moral. Good will is your motive to do something, so if your motive was to either impress or to get a good feeling, then the act of, e.g. giving to charity, it is rendered immoral. Good will is avoiding immoral acts. Kant also said that people seek the highest form of good called the Summon Bonum which will be attained by following his theory of The Categorical Imperative which is split into three formulations. Moral statements are described as “ A priori synthetic “, we cant prove what people should be doing by observing so they are a priori not a posteriori which requires experience. The synthetic part comes from the fact that moral statements might be right of wrong and you need to see the act that will give you this knowledge.
The categorical imperative is different from the hypothetical imperative; they are practically polar opposites as the hypothetical Imperative is what the categorical
The Categorical Imperative was a deontological, absolute, normative and secular theory put forward by Immanuel Kant in the 18th century. Kant’s theory was deontological which means that it judges morality based on a person’s action rather than the outcome, it is also secular, this means that , even though Kant is religious, his theory is not, his theory is judgemental which means the theory is normative and it is also absolute which means that Kant believes that everyone in the world should believe in his theory.
Moral Law can be achieved through reasoning our senses and is equivalent to “Duty + Good Will = Moral Law”. Kant’s theory was based on duty, which is a moral obligation/ responsibility with no benefit to yourself, it means that if you have the chance to do something to help someone it is your moral obligation to do that, “ought implies can” – Immanuel Kant, this means that if there is something that you should do, it implies that you can do it. Kant argued that if you have a good will to do something then the act is moral. Good will is your motive to do something, so if your motive was to either impress or to get a good feeling, then the act of, e.g. giving to charity, it is rendered immoral. Good will is avoiding immoral acts. Kant also said that people seek the highest form of good called the Summon Bonum which will be attained by following his theory of The Categorical Imperative which is split into three formulations. Moral statements are described as “ A priori synthetic “, we cant prove what people should be doing by observing so they are a priori not a posteriori which requires experience. The synthetic part comes from the fact that moral statements might be right of wrong and you need to see the act that will give you this knowledge.
The categorical imperative is different from the hypothetical imperative; they are practically polar opposites as the hypothetical Imperative is what the categorical