Kant and the Categorical Imperative

Kant’s theory of ethics is deontological meaning that it is concerned with the morality of duty. If focuses on the morality of actions and disregards the consequences of an action. It is absolute since the morality of an action takes no regard of the situation it is in.

Kant said that we all experience an innate moral duty. The existence of the conscience and feelings of guilt and shame tell us when we violate this moral duty. He believed that our moral duty could be revealed to us through reason, objectively. His theory was based solely on duty. He said that to act morally is to perform one’s duty, and one’s duty is to obey the innate moral laws.

He believed that we are constantly in a battle with our inclination – our raw wants and desires. We should not act out of love or compassion.

Kant said that it’s was not our duty to do what is impossible for us to do. For Kant, the fact that we ought to do something means that it is logically possible to do – ‘ought’ implies ‘can’. Moral statements are prescriptive; they prescribe an action. If ‘ought’ implies ‘can’ then the statement, ‘I ought to do x’, implies that ‘I can do x’.

Kant said that we all aim to reach an ultimate end call the supreme good, the summum bonum – a state in which human virtue and happiness are united. However, since it is impossible to reach this state in one lifetime, he deduced that we have immortal souls to succeed. Thus, Kant believed in an afterlife where there is a possibility of reaching the supreme good. For an afterlife to exists, Kant said God must exist to aid eschatological justice. For him, God was necessary for morality not the other way round – he rejected all classical notions of theism.

Kant believed that there were two types of statement possible. First, a priori analytic statements such as ‘1 +1 = 2’ are knowable without external research and contains predicate within it. However, statements that are a posteriori synthetic such as, ‘Jack is a butler’ are knowable only by empirical examination – it may be true or false.

Kant contended that moral statements were a priori synthetic. We cannot prove what someone should do just by seeing so moral statements are a priori. However, moral statements may or may not be true, thus they are synthetic.

Therefore, Kant concluded that moral statements where knowable only through reason since they are a priori and that there must be a method by which to verify whether the statement is true or false.

Kant argues that the highest form of good is good will. To have good will is to perform one’s duty. To do one’s duty is to perform actions which are morally required and to avoid those actions which are morally forbidden.

Kant said that we should perform our duty because it is our duty and for no other reason. To perform an action out of desire for any self indulgent consequences is not a morally good action. Duty is good in itself.

Kant believed that we should act out of duty and not emotion. A human action isn’t morally good because we feel it’s good, or because it is in our own self interest. Even if duty demanded the same action, but it was done for a motive such as compassion, the act would be a good act, but the person would not be moral (virtuous) for choosing it.

Kant is said to have devised a system of ethics based on reason and not intuition. A moral person must be a rational being. Being good means having a good will. A good will is when I do my duty for the sake of that duty. I do my duty because it is right, and for no other reason. But what does it mean to act out of duty? Kant explained that to act out of duty is to perform actions which are morally obligatory and not to perform those that are forbidden.

The categorical imperative helps us to know which actions are obligatory and which are forbidden. Hypothetical imperatives are conditional: ‘If I want x then I must do y’. These imperatives are not moral. For Kant, the only moral imperatives were categorical: ‘I ought to do x”, with no reference to desires or needs.

1. The universal law – All moral statements should be general laws, which apply to everyone under and circumstances. There should be no occasion under which an exception is made.

2. Treat humans as ends in themselves – Kant argues that you should never treat people as a means to some end. People should always be treated as ends in themselves. This promotes equality.

3. Act as if you live in a kingdom of ends – Kant assumed that all rational agents were able to deduce whether an argument was moral or not through reason alone and so, all rational humans should be able to conclude the same moral laws.

Kant sought to create a framework by which one could discover which moral statements were true and which were false.

Kant believed that we are free to make rational choices. Reason is what distinguishes us from animals. We have to be free to do our duty. But if we can’t be free then we cannot truly be moral agents. ‘Ought’ no longer implies ‘can’.