Kant

[niveau]

My completed graph of Kant's deontological ethics.

Comments

[olamina]

For some reason I've taken this because I have the feeling it will eventually come in handy.

[niveau]

If you want to go further afield, it's largely drawn on the basis of what Kant says in his Groundwork to the Metaphysics of Morals.

[profgreen]

This chart is all sorts of weird and as a Kantian, makes me scratch my head. The universalization test only tells us the right (law, what is universalizable). The good comes when we act rightfully out of respect for that the law.

Also, its very poor form to call Kant's moral philosophy deontological. Duty is not the foundation, autonomy is.

Also, whats with the gap between Moral Law and Duty? It is academically dishonest to already lay in your criticisms in an explication of a theory.

[niveau]

Yes, and what is universal is unconditional AND, hence, imperative. In a neo-Kantian reading, certainly, 'the good' is contained in the 'act', but in the Groundwork Kant is very clear (and even Platonic) in his assertion that respect for the moral law -- framed as it is by the categorical imperative -- is the apprehension of the Good by reason which is willed (the good will) by doing one's duty free of any inclination to do so, i.e. autonomous

[fprin]

um... what is universalisability?

[niveau]

You take a particular 'maxim', i.e. we should play tennis at 5pm on a Wednesday, and then you 'universalise' it, i.e. EVERYONE should play tennis at 5pm EVERY Wednesday. When you 'universalise' the judgement you test it 2 ways: you imagine it as a universal law of human nature (what humans are 'meant' to do), and also as a universal law of nature (it constitutes part of 'being human'). If you find that you can be consistent on both counts then your act has some 'moral worth