Ethics

Lesson 7: Kantian ethics

 Kant
• Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
• He is a great German
philosopher.
• His thought was influential.
• He opposes the idea of
Utilitarianism in Ethics.
 Morality depends on intention

• right/wrong

• Intention Action Consequence

• According to Kantian ethics, whether an action is right or wrong just

depends on intention.
• What kind of intention?
 What is good intention?
• There are 3 persons and they are doing the same thing, such as
helping an old lady crossing the road. But they have different
intentions.

A Show off

B Want to bring about happiness to people

C Do it as a duty
 Why morality depends on good intention?
• Because good intention is the only thing that is always good.

• Many things are good but they are not always good. For example,
intelligent is good, but you can use intelligent to do the bad things.
 Deontological ethics
• To act rightly is to act from duty.

• Kantian ethics is a kind of deontological ethics.

• Where does our duty come from?

 What is Duty?
• It is different from the concept of duty in our common sense.
• Our Duty imposed on us from ourselves, from our reason.
• Everyone knows his duty and has the same duty.

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 Two Rational principles

• Reason
•

• Hypothetical imperative Categorical imperative

• fundamental moral principle
 Hypothetical imperative
• Hypothetical imperative requires us to perform certain actions that
are the necessary means to achieve certain goals.

• The form: If you want X, you should do Y

• Example: If you want to pass the exam, you should work hard .
 Categorical imperative
• Categorical imperative requires us to perform certain actions as a
principle, regardless of what particular goals we have.

• The form: You should do Y

• For example: Never tell lies

 HI vs CI

Action following HI has no moral value, even though it looks

Hypothetical the same as action performed out of duty in appearance
imperative Example: helping others to get reward is not a moral action

Categorical Action following CI has moral value and so we have a duty to

imperative follow it
Example: helping others as a duty is a moral action
 Three kinds of action
Three kinds of actions Example Morality

Action against our duty Telling lie Immoral

Action consistent with duty Telling the truth to earn No moral

the trust of people value

Action act from duty Telling the truth Moral

 Two aspects of CI

• Universal law

• Categorical imperative

• Principle of respect
 Universal law
• Act so that you can intend your action to form a universal law.
• If it is impossible for an action to be followed by everyone or you will
contradict yourself when you intend an action to be followed by
everyone, the action cannot be universalized, then it is wrong.
 Example
• “Refuse to help the people in need because of selfishness”
• Can this action be universalized?

• When we need help, we also intend that others give us a helping

hand. So “Refusing to help others” cannot form a universal law.
Because there is a contradiction.
• Thus, we have a duty to help people in need.
 Example
• “Make false promises in order to overcome difficulties”

• If everyone makes a false promise when he is in difficulties, no one

will trust others in this world.
• So, no one will be able to make a promise.
• It is impossible for this action to form a universal law.
• Thus, we have a duty to keep our promise.
 Principle of respect
• Treating people as ends-in-themselves
•

• Principle of respect

• Don’t treat people as a mere means

 Means and end-in-itself
Means things that have instrumental value, Kant: means is
they can help us achieve our goals. different from mere
means
End-in-itself things that have intrinsic values Kant: only rational
beings are ends-in-
themselves.
Treating people as ends-in-themselves
• Humans are ends-in-themselves because humans have intrinsic value.
• Not just respect people with aims or purposes, sometimes you have
to promote their aims.
Two ways of treating people as a mere means
• Deception

• As a mere means

• Coercion
 Example
• “refuse to help the people in need because of selfishness”

• It violates the principle of respect, In order to treat people as an

end, we should promote their ends.
 Example
• “Make false promises in order to overcome difficulties”

• If I make a false promise to another person, I treat him as a mere

means by disrespecting his autonomy.
 How to justify killing people is wrong?

Kantian ethics

Utilitarianism
 Main criticism of Kantian ethics
• The problem of conflict between duties.

• Basically, Kantian ethics cannot solve this problem

• Example: Conflict between “Saving people’s lives” and “Telling the
truth” in the case of Nazi.
 Example
• In the Second World War, Nazi is knocking your door demanding to
know where Jews are hidden. You know that where Jews are hidden
and also know that their fate if they are discovered by Nazi. What
should you do?

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 A possible solution
• If the moral rule “Telling the truth.” is absolute, we should never lie in
any circumstance.

• However, if the Principle of Universal Law does not require specific

moral rules (e.g., telling the truth) to be absolute, we would like to
intend that anyone to lie if his intention is to save others’ lives.

• So, lying in this situation could form a universal law.

 Example
• Terrorists placed a bomb in the city. You caught one of them and his
two years old son. In order to save the lives of citizens, you need to
torture his son to make him tell you the location of the bomb. Should
you do this?

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• However, may be some moral rules are more important, so they are
more absolute.
• Example: “Never torture innocent people”

• Can we intend that anyone to torture innocent people if his intention

is to save others’ lives?
• Assume that you are the innocent person, would you intend this
action to be followed by everyone?

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 Example: Question about intention
• In the second gulf war, Saddam Hussein used civilians as human
shields to deter the bombing of USA. American knows the effect of
bombing the weapon installations, that is it would also kill the
innocent people. But can we say that American has intention to kill
these innocent people?
 Example
Suppose you are a trolley car driver, you see ten workers on the
track before you. You suddenly realize that the brakes have
failed. Fortunately, the track has a spur leading off to the right,
and you can turn the trolley onto it. Unfortunately, there is one
person on the right hand track. What should you do?

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• If you turn the trolley to the right, you would kill one innocent person.
Do you have the intention to kill him for saving the lives of the other
ten persons?

• Take the position of Kantian ethics and think what to do.

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Letting people die is better than killing
people
• Turn right or not?
• yes no

• Killing people Letting people die

• Morally wrong worse than Morally wrong

 Example
Imagine the case of a child being born with a disability which is so
severe that the child will die within a month, and there is no medical
procedure which can remedy the disability. Would it be wrong to kill
the child.

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 Other criticisms of Kantian ethics
• Consequence plays part in morality

• Problems with universal law

• Criticisms
• No duty is absolute
 Consequence plays part in morality

Intention Consequence Punishment

Murder Same Same Most
serious

Attempted murder Same Serious

Manslaughter Same Less serious

 Problem with universal law
• Cannot pass universal law not necessarily immoral

• Example: Don’t start eating until someone else does, leave early to
avoid the traffic.

• How about this one: Homosexual is immoral as everyone did it,

human race would quickly die out.
 No duty is absolute
• Some duties are more important than the others.

• For example, Don’t kill people is more important than telling the
truth.
 Example
• Mr. Lau is a plastic surgeon specializing in the repair of birth defects.
He lives in a part of the country where there is no-one else with his
skills and qualifications. He has two children, whom he sees very little
because he spends long hours at the hospital. His children would be
happier if he can take holidays with his children on weekends. But
hundreds of other children would then not to get the operations that
they need in order to live normal lives.

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 Discussion
• Should Mr. Lau work on the weekends?
• Take a position to argue for or against his working on weekends.

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 Application in business
• The computer component manufacturer Intel provides an example of
deontological ethics in business through an unusual human resources
practice that allow some employees to rotate through up to five of
the company’s departments every 16 to 24months. This program is
provided for the sole purpose of being good to employees and a
sincere desire on the part of the company to see its workers happy.
The company received no direct benefit from the program.