Sandel Chapter 5

1. What does Immanuel Kant’s account of duties and rights depend on?

According to him, we are rational beings, and our rights and duties are worthy of
dignity and respect.mm
2. Which of Sandel’s three categories does Kant’s methodology fall into?

I think kant methodology falls in to walfare. He thinks walfare of person rights

are important both morally and freedom can be also related to it.

3. Why does Kant reject utilitarianism?

He rejects utilitarianism by saying it will rughts vulnerable. They are more prone
to physical damage. Just because somethings give many people pleasure, doesn’t
make it right.

4. For Kant, what is the connection between our capacity for reason and our
capacity for freedom?

I think, according to Kant, the connection between the two is that human beings
are rational beings. They are capable of reason. And being autonomous, they are
capable of acting and choosing freely. According to him, sometimes we act
rationally and openly, but sometimes we don’t. He says that we have the capacity
to do so, and this capacity is common to all the beings.
5. What does Kant mean by “freedom?”

I think according to him, to act freely is not to choose the best means to a given
end, it is to select the end itself .He says that human being have the right to make
choices.
6. What is the link between freedom as autonomy and Kant’s idea of morality?

According to the kant, moral and freedom can be related in such a way that if
someone is moraaly right and his decision is not affecting other than it is the right
decision to be made.
 7. For Kant, what does it mean to respect human dignity?

To respect human dignity means treating person right as t end in themselves. It is not
right to treat people for their general welfare. This is not in favor of utilitarianism.

8. For Kant, what gives an action moral worth?

The moral worth of an action depend not in the consequences but in the
from which action is taken. Motives means a lot. Motives must be cetrain kind. Doing
right thing at the right time.
9. What does Kant mean when he argues that only the principled position is in
line with the motive of duty, the only motive that confers moral worth on an
action?

When we access the moral worth of an action we access the motives from which
it is done.He is not saying about the particular duties we should done, he is concern about
the supreme principle of morality and what it commands. We access the moral worth of
an action, we access the motive from which it is done, not the consequences it produces.

10. Would Kant decide that the spelling bee student did something that was
morally worthy? Why or why not?

Kant would think not wanting to feel like a slime in an inclination. If the boy
motive was telling the truth, this elaborae his motives of telling the truth.But this
is too harsh.

11. for kant, what is the supreme principle of morality?

He picturizes it in three big words morality, equality, and freedom. He

constructed these ideas through the picture contrasts or dualism. Everything in the
natures works according to the law, such as law of cause and effect. This include
us. Human beings are exempt from the laws of nature.
12. What is the role/work of reason, according to utilitarians?

Utilitarian says that the reason is instrumental. It enables us to identify means of

the pursuit of particular ends. It ends that reason itself does not provide. He thinks
that human beings are capable of right but only instrumental reasons.

13. What is Kant’s understanding of reason?

 According to him, the reason is not only the slave of passion if that were all
reason mounted if it would instead go with instincts.

14. What is a hypothetical imperative, according to Kant?

According to him, if you want a good business reputation, then treat your
customer honestly.

15. What is a categorical imperative, according to Kant? (Note—please make

sure that you don’t just quote the book here, but that you understand what
the book is explaining.)

According to the Kant, the rightness or wrongness of the reaction doesn’t depend
on the consequences. Rather it depends on whether they fulfill our duty or not.

16. Can you explain the first formulation of the categorical imperative in your
own words?

According to the Kant, the maxim can only be considered if it is universally true.
Like he put the example of borrowing money with the promise of giving it back. But
it not right, as he knows that he cannot give it back.so he sats that one can act on
maxim if he thinks that it will be a universal law, i.e., truth. He says that by making
false promises, we are giving rise to a contradiction in the universal law, and no one
would believe it.

17. Can you explain the second formulation of the categorical imperative in your
own words?

He says that moral values do not depend on personal interest as it will end when
that specific interest of the person will ends. He says that human being re rational
beings and has value also. This value is intrinsic and sensible and has dignity too.

18. For Kant, what does justice require in our treatment of other human beings?

He rejected utilitarianism, and this rejection is based on the moral law—he

emphasis on moral values for the treatment of other human beings.

19. How are acting autonomously and morally the same thing in Kant’s mind?

We are free to make our choice, but these choices should be morally right. The
moral values, according to him, are consist of an imperative categorical, a
 principle that requires us to treat persons with respect.

20. Why isn’t Kant’s categorical imperative the same as the Golden Rule?

The golden rule depends on contingent facts about how people would like to be
treated. The categorical imperative requires that we are abstracts from such
contingencies and respect person as a rational being, depending on what they
want in a particular situation.

21.Note—when Sandel is describing Kant and the issue of creating or

following one’s law, while making it a universal, he is saying this not
because every person makes their own individual set of laws. He is
saying this because there is a global law in existence that we can all
figure out using reason. We will all decide that our duty in a situation is
the same as what everyone else figures out because things are only
right or wrong in and of themselves—by their nature. Do not mistake
Sandel to be saying that everyone makes their laws and follows them
and universalizes them, even if they are different from others. If you use
reason, they will not be different from others if the process is
completed correctly. This is explained a bit further on the bottom of
127 but is never clearly explicated, in my opinion.

According to the kant, human beings are governed by pleasure and pain but
also are rational beings. The determination will give us the power to
determine nature or inclination. According to utilitarians, human beings are
capable of instrumental reasoning.
22.Sandel goes on to give various examples relating to casual sex, teeth
extraction, and prostitution. As you read through these examples,
please try to consider the arguments as a way of more fully
understanding Kant’s thought. Do not focus on your agreement or
disagreement with what he is saying or arguing for right now.

Kant way of thinking about morality and freedom leads to devasting critique
of utilitarianism.

23.You can stop reading at mid-134.