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categorial imperative - Coggle Diagram

- - - - CI= are universal laws, and ones we as rational beings must always follow
      - BUT HOW DOES KANT DETERMINE WHAT OUR CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVES ARE:
        Kant has three ways of formulating categorical imperatives
      - 1: playing upon universalizability= Kant states ' act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law'= by this he means you should act in a way whereby you would want everyone else in the world to act in the same way, and so by that basis you should refrain from doing things that you wouldn't want everyone else to do= SO KANT WOULD ARGUE THAT AN ACT IS PERMISSIBLE IF you are willing for that action to be universalised, if you are not then this cannot be moral law
        
        if your actions would cause contradictions in your will when universalized, then these are actions that you should not do
        
        Using the example of LYING= if your in a situation where your about to lie, imagine what it would be like if everyone in the world where to lie all the time, if lying was permissible for everyone in the world= truth would become meaningless= no one can be trusted, it would result in chaos= no rational person would want this type of world= so we conclude that you should never lie
        
        it now becomes our duty and we should always obey this no matter what
        
        another example would be a person going to a park and seeing beautiful flowers and they want to pick some to take home = if they asked themselves ' what if everyone who came to the park picked some flowers= then there would be no more pretty flowers to look at/ no beautiful view, so picking flowers cannot be morally permissable
      - 2. treat humanity as an end in itself and never simply as a means
        
        so for kant another rational or reasonable human being should never be used to fulfill another end, rather they should be considered ends themselves
        
        they should be treated as people
        
        Example: consider a slave owner forcing many people to build a giant building, the building is the END and the people are being used as a means, they are being forced against they're will to build, this would violate moral law, and not be permissable
      - 3: kingdom of ends= kant imagined a hypothetical kingdom of perfect rational moral beings, kant urged all people to see themslves as a member or law maker of the kingdom of ends, and act as though your actions would be approved by this kingdom of a rational being
      - these hypothetical being treat human beings as a means to an ends
      - For human beings to be acting through goodwill means that they are following their duty of the categorical imperative, all beings should follow this duty at all times, if we all do this then will be in a state of peace and harmony