There is an old saying that it is better to be lucky than good. This may be true if a person is always lucky, but luck sometimes has a tendency to run out. Making decisions that affect other people’s lives based on luck can be sometimes dangerous, and usually ethically questionable. Leaders who routinely depend on luck for success may find themselves relying on other questionable actions, such as lying, cheating, or stealing, to ensure luck stays on their side. Additionally, this type of behavior may force subordinates to make ethically questionable decisions when luck begins to run out.…
Immanuel Kant’s Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals starts off by saying there is only one thing that is good without qualification which is a good will. Something can only be good if it is well-matched with a good will. In fact, “a good will is” according to him, “is good not because of what it effects or accomplishes, nor because of its fitness to attain some proposed end; it is good only through its willing i.e., it is good in itself” (7). He states that these specific obligations of a good will are called duties and then makes three propositions about them. Kant then says that “I should never act except in such a way that I can also will that my maxim…
What part does happiness play in determining the morality of an act in a situation? Can a concept that ties morality to the search of happiness truly be rational? What of the opposite? Is it possible to view every situation with objectivity, never taking into account an emotion (like happiness)? The questions above concern themselves with the part of the central tenets of the ethical views of two very important philosophers, respectfully: John Mill and Immanuel Kant. The ethical theories that these two philosophers laid out clash with each other in fundamental ways, from how reason was defined, to the role that “happiness” played in determining the ethical choice in a moral dilemma. In the following pages, I will attempt to present and discuss the theories of Kant and Mill, pointing out what I perceive as weakness in said theories, as well as the possible strengths of each system.…
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from the 18th century who is well known as an essential person in philosophy today. He has made the argument that there are a set of essential ideas that structure human experience and is the source of morality. His thought continues to have a major influence in contemporary thought, especially the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, and aesthetics. Kant’s theory on morality as often been criticized on being too…
In the course of history, it occasionally becomes necessary to dissolve one’s democratic ties to another. Governments are established by citizens, to protect the rights of man from the disastrous reign of tyranny. Throughout time, tyrants, thieves of the rights of nature and man, and pirates of God’s will, have relinquished the civil liberties of their citizens. Tyranny becoming absolved by others is not without consequence of apology and the vindication of the autocratic acts committed by one on another. When such events occur, men create new governments, in place of old, and start anew in the hopes of greater welfare for fellow man. Self-evident truths, as stated in the document from which this document is derived (The Declaration of Independence), entrusts man with the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness from his Creator. Presently, the government of the United States and its President aspire to transcend their roles to uphold the Constitution, by instead rewriting it, in the assurance of felicity for citizens. Such…
In accordance to the Age of Enlightenment where individuals sought to shed the light of science and reason on the world in order to question traditional ideas, Thomas Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence” borrows enlightenment ideals from major figures, such as John Locke, to enhance his rational message of colonial separation from British rule. According to Immanuel Kant, the Enlightenment is man’s emancipation from self-imposed immaturity to use their own reason; he explains how individuals can reach enlightenment, and thus true freedom, through scholarly and public criticism of laws and practices in order to progress towards a just society. With reason as a source of light to both, how did Jefferson’s views on individual freedom compare…
This essay aims to argue the views of two different theorist, Jeremy Bentham and Immanuel Kant, with regards to their views on moral worth of an action. The idea of good and bad creates heated debates among many, but this essay will successfully unravel the layers of Bentham’s theory of Utilitarianism and his belief that all our motives are driven by pleasure and pain. While arguing Kant’s opposing argument that moral worth of an act revolves around democratic attitudes, and that moral truths are founded on reasons that is logical to all people. When one breaks down both theories, it occurs that Kant’s theory comes out to be the more sensible one in numerous aspects.…
In further development of the argument that the role of the state should be minimal, if one takes the stance of Kant in saying that “Human beings are ends in themselves”; it would therefore be logical to…
First, before talking about the ideological differences between Kant and Regan, we must first discuss what exactly a right is. In layman’s terms, a right is something that a person should be morally allowed to have or do. Put simply, a right is a claim that one person has on another person; I have a right to be…
According to Kant, he believes that the only thing unconditionally good is good will. Good will is the idea of people having to do ones moral duty. Kant’s ethical theories are based off of the categorical imperatives. Categorical imperatives, as stated during class, act only on those rules that you can rationally will to be universal. In response to Kant’s theory, I believe that good will is not the only thing that is unconditionally good. I believe this because there will be many instances in life where having a good will can lead to tragic situations.…
Kant claims that humans, mainly man, cannot use their own enlightenment because they have their freedom taken away, thereby not allowing themselves to make decisions for themselves. Throughout the reading, Kant said that, “This enlightenment requires nothing but freedom-and the most innocent of all…
Immanuel Kant argued that although human knowledge comes from experience, nonetheless knowledge must be grounded in some necessary truths. It is hard to see how the existence of logically and metaphysically necessary truths is enough to ground human knowledge. Following Kant’s reasoning, there are certain types of knowledge we have no access to. I will argue that Presuppositionalism is more plausible than Kant’s skepticism about certain types of knowledge, and that from the Presuppositionalist perspective skepticism is self-refuting. If we don’t assume that God exists, we find that we can’t reach certain conclusions and are left wanting.…
Immanuel Kant is a philosopher that has always stuck out because the way he approaches morality is particularly different than most other philosopher. Some would say that Kant’s philosophy works satisfactorily in a perfect world, but fails to account for how the world actually is, which is far from perfect. Even if this is true the groundwork of Kant’s work has still garnered the admiration of many philosophers that were during and after his time.…
The pursuit of human enlightenment has been the object of learned men in every age and in every culture. Though the methods of such men have varied in time and space, those who have achieved any notable plateaus of illumination have done so through systematic and unbiased reasoning. This organization of rational progression has been called many things, though for the sake of uniformity within this composition, it shall be given the label “scientific investigation.” The steps used in a scientific investigation are ordered to follow a universally logical and coherent process, which can be applied not only to the sciences but also to logic, philosophy, mathematics, and all other pursuits that require a solid cognitive basis. To be worthy of the status attributed to scientific investigation, the execution of such methods must include clarity of mind, openness to refutation, patience, and review, though the exact phases of different applications may vary. Two perspectives on the role of scientific investigation in human enlightenment that hold evidence of truth but present seemingly conflicting theses are those of Immanuel Kant and John Henry Newman. These great thinkers respectively maintain the opposing positions that the achievement of enlightenment is possible if one is allowed to utilize reason to explore a subject freely and publically and, conversely, that enlightenment can only be attained through careful analysis and a limitation of deference to human involvement.…
Freedom to think or freedom to act—that is the crux of Kant’s “What is Enlightenment?”. In this essay, the German philosopher describes enlightenment as an emergence from nonage: “the inability to use one’s own understanding without another’s guidance” (2). Initially, Kant emphatically asserts that the vast majority of people are obedient to and dependant on the thoughts of a few “guardians”, either because of laziness or cowardice (2). He even goes as far as to compare men to conditioned cattle: First, these guardians make their domestic cattle stupid and carefully prevent the docile creatures from taking a single step without the leading-strings to which they have fastened them.…