Man and Duty

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher that believed in the

dignity of human reason, duty, goodwill and the ends of human actions.
But first, let us begin with duty – it simply means that it is anything that
has to be done or omitted. Others believe that it is a moral obligation one
has to do but within the framework of human freedom. There are four
kinds of duty namely:
1.Natural Duty
These are moral duty of citizen to obey the laws of their state and
God in relation to the Eternal Law. Examples are the duty to worship
God or the duty to value human life.
2. Positive Duty
An obligation to do an act, on the part of the person on whom it is
imposed. Examples are the duty to hear mass, pay taxes and tuition fees.
3. Affirmative Duty
These are things that adhere to moral obligation. Examples are the
inherent law of doing good and avoiding evil, helping the poor, aid the
needy and the likes.
4. Negative Duty
Moral obligation to avoid or refrain from doing something.
Examples are prohibitions of “no smoking”, “no littering” or “loitering”
as well as legal decision.
Kant’s philosophy revolved around the dignity of Human Reason. Man
has gift or reason and free will and the master of his identity. Man is the
only creature who can create his own destiny ad is the end not the means
of God’s creation. Man having a free will should never exploit his fellow
men that slavery, bribery and any form of human exploitation degrades
men into beasts which is morally wrong. God created all things as means
and Man is an end being an instrument of God’s Divine Plan. Man’s
primary duty is to make sure that God’s Divine Plan of being like Him is
implemented but in accordance with his free will.
Kant’s Philosophy of Good Will
Contrary to the Aristotelian and Thomistic philosophies that
mentioned Moral law can from God was made undisputed by Man
through his conscience for conscience came from Him. Kant believed
that reason made all laws and makes everyone obey all laws at the same
time this is called the “Autonomy of reason”. Reason is endowed in men
that laws are created because there is reason for it and that is to reach a
reasonable end. Man is the only being capable of grasping the truth,
according to Kant it can only be seen through sense experience
(sensation felt by the senses). We can only grasp the tangible and
phenomenon never the noumenon (unexplainable events). Man cannot
know the very essence of the thing itself for man cannot know
everything. Man will never know what is right from wrong since there is
no certainty in this world. So what is Good Will then, Kant means to act
out of sense of moral obligation or “duty”, The German Scholar believed
that the Eternal Law “do good and avoid evil” is inherent in man,
meaning that there is goodness in every man that no matter how evil
they are, the tendency to do good or wanting something good is innate in
man. The will is his ability to pursue his good with help of human reason
but then again the goodness or badness of an act lies in the purpose why
had he done it. Not all good acts are good in itself such as a politician
doling out goods to typhoon victims or any adversary delivering a
eulogy to a fallen opponent. Good Will is the reason why he made such
action and the ends he wanted to achieve upon doing it.
Kant’s Categorial Imperative
This philosophy of Immanuel Kant is a derivation of The Golden
Rule mentioned in the Chinese Classics “Do not do unto others what you
do not want others to do unto you”. In his case he “Act only in
accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time
will that it become a universal law”. To sum it up that is a command or
an imperative. There are two kinds of imperatives hypothetical and
categorical, let us differentiate. The former are commands that are
dependent on the goals to be fulfilled. These are commands that apply
only in particular circumstances, for particular people who happen to
have these desires, these goals. Examples are brushing your teeth to
avoid bad breath, go to school to fulfill your scholastic needs and the
likes. Categorical Imperatives are commands that are universal and
impartial. It encompasses every reasonable being regardless of their
origin, culture or social standing and at the same time they have to
perform these in respect of their origin, culture or social standing which
devoid of their bias or inclinations. Universal Love is an example of
Categorical Imperative, World Peace is another.
The Kingdom of Ends
Immanuel Kant believed in the dignity of human reason but also of
the free will. As mentioned in past modules man is endowed with free
will and human reason to decide but if they are coerced then their
freedom of choice is hampered making them less of a human being.
Dignity of man should not be compromised. The Kingdom of ends is the
idea of state equal to Sor Thomas More’s Utopia. Kant defines it as
“systematic union of different rational beings through common laws”.
But it is attainable? He believed it is because as long as men think the
same way which he deemed as “categorical imperative” it is attainable.
The Kingdom of ends has three ingredients: the members, the sovereign,
and the private ends which the members have. The members refer to
reasonable free-willed persons, who obey universal laws. They are ends
themselves and are willing to spread their ideals to others absent of
personal biases. The sovereign is perceived to be God for he is not
subject to any law but has no “power” to break the law itself he is a role-
model that the members will subscribe to. The private ends to the
members are the goals they wanted to achieve that will benefit everyone
that might refer to categorical imperatives. In this kingdom, human
degradation, slavery and exploitation for the private ends they wanted to
attain are for everyone’s benefit.
What are Rights?
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or
entitlement. Rights are part of modern civilization and are regarded as
established pillars of society and culture. Conflicts in history such as
war, for example, began and end with rights. Democracy protected the
rights of the individuals, property, and privileges that is a thing men can
never do without. Human rights are moral principles that describe
standards of human behavior protected by law. They are considered as
inalienable and fundamental, which means they can be given and taken
away once abused and is a necessity for human existence. Human rights
are inherent among human beings because that is part of their existence
regardless of their race, color or creed. It must be noted that due process.
The “aggrieved” party may lose his fundamental rights backed up by a
court litigation and at the same time mete punishment for his mistake.
Types of Human Rights:
1. Civil and Political Rights
“civil-political” rights venter on political liberties dealing with
politics. They are strongly individualistic and negatively constructed to
protect the individual for the state. These rights got their origin from
Thomas Paine’s ‘Rights of Man’ that is part of the democratic process.
Civil Rights include the security of people’s well-being, the protection
from discrimination and the exercise of freedoms of speech, freedom,
press and assembly. By political Rights we mean natural justice such as
the right of the accused to fair trial, redress of grievances and legal
remedies.
2.Socio-Economic and Cultural Rights
Are human rights guarantee equal conditions and treatment of
necessities provided by the State. These include the human right
employment, the right to a high quality of life, including the basic needs
of food, clothing, and shelter and the right to social security, healthy
environment, and education. These rights are part of the body of human
rights that resulted after World War II.
3. Collective-Developmental Rights
The right of peoples and groups of development in relation to
States right to public assembly. This is for the protection of associations
and groups with the help of the state in well-being.
Right versus Privileges
A privilege is an entitlement to immunity granted by the state or
another authority to a restricted group on a conditional basis. On the
other hand a right is an inherent, irrevocable entitlement held by all
citizens or all human beings from the moment of birth. What is the
difference, privilege refers to special powers or immunities held as a
consequence of political power, social status or wealth. Any citizen has
the right to elect a public official but having a driver’s license is a
privilege for it cannot be demanded. Such government ID needed exams
to pass and laws to follow. Privilege elevate a person, that granted them
status and power that not everybody can claim. Both of them however
can be taken away once abused.
Moral Right versus Legal Right
As explained in the past modules not everything moral as legal and
vice versa but we will give an in-depth analysis of that in a module.
Moral rights are rights accorded under some system of ethics. Moral
rights adhere to the idea that men are to be respected because they are
rational people. This includes the right to fair treatment and right to
privacy. That is, if Pedro has the right to these things Juan also being a
human being must also be given the same privilege.
Legal rights are people’s rights under some legal system, granted
by the government or any duly constituted authority. Everyone has the
right to know the veracity of a news item that the State may upheld the
right to information but cannot force the people to believe in it.
Utilitarianism
This philosophy is also known as Consequentialism that says the
rightness or wrongness of an object depends on the effects of the
consequence regardless of the method it utilized. There are two kinds of
utilitarianism and they are Act utilitarian and Rule utilitarian, the first
believed about the goodness or badness of a particular act. An example
is the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in
1984 that was an act of murder by the civilized people but to the
perpetuators it was an act beneficial to the maligned Indian minority.
Rule utilitarian means the goodness or evilness of an act itself. Say
abortion may be an evil but Western civilization view it as a means to
combat population explosion. Morality is defined, simply as increasing
good and decreasing evil by eliminating traditions, taboos or archaic
beliefs that obstruct human development. These age-old beliefs put man
in a “primitive” way of life that denied their right to free-will and are a
bane to human behavior. The proponents of this theory were Jeremy
Bentham and John Stuart Mill wherein the first thought about this idea
and later shared to his pupil which later propagated for humanity albeit
with his own interpretation. Despite being thinkers of the 18th Century
their ideas were utilized by the present generation but were doubted for
its absurdities. That even today the ideas of these scholars were unsure
as to they tend to Act Utilitarian or Rule Utilitarian. Their writings are
ambiguous that they have no idea what utilitarian act they subscribe.
The Philosophies of Bentham and Mill
Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832) proposed utilitarianism in this
premises: 1. Human life is greatly affected by pleasure and pain; 2.
Consequences of actions are caused by pleasure and pain; 3. The idea of
anything pleasurable is good and anything painful is evil is absolute; and
4. Pleasure and pain can be qualified. To sum it up, man’s happiness is
quantified by either pleasure and pain and nothing else. They can be
measured according to the following criteria such as intensity, duration,
certainty and nearness.
John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873) for his part clarified his professors
stand by making hos own counterpoint: 1. The quality of happiness is
more important than its quantity; 2. The quality of happiness cannot be
measured for these thing are felt and no amount of calculation can
quantify it; 3. Mill believed in the idea of the “General Happiness of the
People” that happiness can be felt by everyone, in short common
happiness.
Positive and Negative Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is famous for its maxim “Greater happiness for the
grater number” and believed in the premise that while man’s purpose in
this world is to be happy, we must only think more of happiness and
neglect misery in our lives. Which brings us to Positive Utilitarianism
which adheres to the maxim mentioned, while is negative counterpart
centers on its complete contradiction “least misery for the least number
of people”. It must be noted, though that both are absurd because
suffering is part of human existence that comes in great numbers that
made a considerable number of people suffering as well. Negative
Utilitarianism is also impractical if not totally ludicrous because by
experiencing misery we became emotionally stronger inasmuch as it is
triumph over adversity, life is not a bed of roses anyway. Positive
Utilitarianism is also preposterous for happiness may not be attained by
everyone and anyone might bot feel the same way. For example, if we
are happy inflicting pain to another being a sadist will the receiving
party feel pleasure? Certainly not unless he is a masochist.
Business Utilitarianism
As mentioned earlier, the rightness or wrongness of an action is
based on the consequence regardless of the method employed. We can
also connect that to the common adage “the end justifies the means” just
as long as it benefits the society where one belongs. Conversely
speaking, any action is valid as long as it is for the “greater good for the
greater number”, Now let us correlate Utilitarianism to Business, four
things gave to be kept in mind:
1. Business depends upon the consequence of an action ergo
consequentialism – as mentioned the validity of the action is the
consequence or the attainment of its ends. This type of belief is
considered bad because this practically permitting the profiteers or
exercising avarice by jacking up price of commodities and at the same
time using substandard goods and services just as long as they attain of
raking cash at the expense of good business.
2. Business depends on welfarism – by welfarism we mean an act is
valid if the society where one belongs subscribed to that similar
understanding. This has positive effects because it deals with the well-
being of the society such as raising the salaries of the workers that the
State (unless they adhere to Command economy practiced by
Communists) approved.
3. Business is individualism – this centers on the happiness of the
consumer while the first two ideals are for the businessmen and the
workers respectively. In this concept, the businessmen will give quality
goods and services at affordable prices devoid of profit but merely
public service.
4. Business aggregation – by aggregation this means the rightness or
wrong ness of an action is dependent in only on the average values of
all the individual, egalitarian in the real sense of the world. It simply
means that happiness should be shared by all sectors of business – the
businessmen, workers, buyers and society.