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Kantian ethics - Coggle Diagram
Kantian ethics
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Duty
- For Kant, the only intrisically good thing is a good will - having good motives and intentions
- Kant argued that it doesn't matter if we are prevented from carrying out our intentions, what matters is that we aim to do the right thing
- If we have a good will, we will perform the right action for the right reason
- For Kant, duty is that which we rationally work out that we ought to do - our emotions and possible consequences are irrelevant
- Doing the right thing out of self-interest, inclination or because of possible consequences is not duty
- Kant believes that all human beings have moral duties that they must act upon just because they are human beings
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The three postulates
- For Kant, there are three postulates that have to be in place for morality to function - these are things that have to be assumed or are a basis of reasoning
- We have free will - if we are not genuinely free to do either the good thing or the evil thing then there can be no moral responsibility
- We are immortal (there is an afterlife) - Kant argued that morality requires the summum bonum (the highest good) to be achieved, this is where perfect virtue (good deeds) is rewarded by perfect happiness - this does not happen in this life so the summum bonum must occur in the next life
- God exists - in order that the summum bonum actually occurs and goodness is rewarded by happiness, there must be a God who ensures the justice of the universe
- Kant believed that these three things must be assumed practically in order for morality to exist
- Kant believed there were absolute moral rules that could be worked out rationally
- Kant's theory is deontological, he is interested in right actions rather than right outcomes
- The rules Kant believed we should follow are categorical imperatives, they are things that we could make into universal laws, they allow us to treat people as ends and would be permissible in a perfect kingdom of ends