Question

Briefly explain Kantian Ethics. Describe at least one objection to Kantian Ethics.

Answer 1

• Kantian Ethics in a nutshell, surrounds what Kant calls the "Categorical Imperative." Kants ethical system is one of duty ethics, in that people are duty bound to abide by the moral system.
• The Categorical Imperative states that one ought always act as one ought to in an ideal world. Kants ideal world is one devoid of circumstance, and the Categorical Imperative applies to all people in all situations.
• In the classical Kant example, if someone is drowning you will save them regardless of their worth to you. If someone is drowning and holding a priceless painting they are no more worth saving than someone who is not holding the painting. The Categorical Imperative functions as a duty based ethical system that applies in all circumstances regardless of how the actor is affected by the outcome of their moral decision.
• Kantian ethics is a duty based system that requires all actors to behave in such a way that they would wish all people to behave in the exact same way across all circumstances, Kant calls this the Kingdom of Ends.
• Most criticisms of Kant's ethics more fundamentally attack his Platonic emphasis on reason as the ultimate arbiter of morality, which is of course itself dependent on the belief that morality is a static, rational phenomena describable in terms of absolutes not unlike the laws of physics.
• One of the most piercing criticisms of Kantian ethics, in that it meets Kant on his own ground rather than beginning by attacking the foundations, is the objection by Hegel that Kant's Universal Maxim or Categorical Imperative conveys no content and thus offers no ethical instruction. "Act only according to that maxim which you would will to be a universal maxim," Hegel says, is reducible to a simple principle of non-contradiction of the form "One cannot do both x and not x."
• This for Hegel is why the Categorical Imperative seems to allow as morally valid some fairly bizarre maxims such as "Everyone except me should be treated as a means rather than as an end."