hello and welcome to philosophy 5 the

channel where we discuss and debate

different philosophical ideas today
we're going to be focusing on some
ethics and looking into the works of
Immanuel Kant Kantian ethics falls under
deontological ethics are you familiar
with this yes the young comes from the
Greek word duty this branch of ethics
bandage duty higher than anything else
it says we should always follow a set of
moral principles no matter what the
situation is or what the outcome will be
yes exactly can argue that the only good
was good will unlike utilitarianism can
did not believe the term good was linked
to happiness because what might make
some people happy could be an evil act
also Kant did not agree that good was
dependent on an outcome because the
particular outcome might have been
brought about by evil acts
the only good was goodwill so what does
can't consider to be goodwill good
question
so goodwill to Kant was for rational
beings to follow their duty and act in
accordance with moral law can saw human
beings as rational beings which
possessed reason thought it's this
ability that allows people to follow
their duty and act towards moral law so
what exactly does can mean by moral law
according to Kant the central construct
of moral law is the categorical
imperative now an imperative is
something you must do you have two types
of imperatives categorical and
hypothetical a hypothetical imperative
is something you must do in order to
achieve something else if you want to be
on time you must leave now if you want
to stop your hunger you must eat food a
categorical imperative is something you
must always do no matter what the
situation is no matter what you want to
achieve or what your desires are
categorical imperatives are universal
laws and once we as rational beings must
always follow okay but how does can't
determine what our categorical
imperatives are can has three ways of
formulating categorical imperatives the
first was playing upon the idea of
universe ability can states act only
according to that maxim whereby you can
at the same time will that it should
become a universal law by this he means
you should only act
whereby you would want everyone else in
the world to act in the same way and by
that basis you should refrain from doing
things that you would not want everyone
else to do
I see so Kant would argue that an act is
permissible if you're willing for that
action to be universalized if you are
not then this cannot be moral law if
your actions would cause contradictions
in your wheel when universalized then
these are actions that you should not do
let's look at the example of lying if
you're in a situation where you're about
to lie ask yourself what would happen if
everyone lied all the time if flying was
permissible for everyone in the world
truth would become meaningless
no one could be trusted it will result
in chaos no rational person would want
this type of world so we conclude that
you should never lie it now becomes our
duty and we should always obey this no
matter what
yes I understand or consider the person
who walks to the park to look at the
beautiful flowers one day they may want
to pick some flowers to take home if
they ask themselves what if everyone who
came to the park picked some flowers
then there would be no more flowers left
in the park and there will be no
beautiful view so picking flowers cannot
be morally permissible the second
formulation of the categorical
imperative is to treat humanity as an
end in itself and never simply as a
means so if I can a rational or
reasonable being should never be used by
someone else to fulfill another end
rather they should be considered ends
themselves they should be treated as
people let's consider the slave owner
forcing many people to build a giant
building the building is the end and the
people are being used as a means they
are being forced against their will to
build this would violate moral law
should not be permissible I agree and
finally the third formulation is known
as the kingdom of ends can imagine the
hypothetical kingdom of perfect rational
moral beings can urged all people to see
themselves as a member or lawmaker of
the kingdom events and actors know your
actions will be approved by this kingdom
of rational beings I see so there you
have the categorical imperative for
moral law only act in a way that you
will to be universal never treat human
beings as a means to an end and always
acts as though you remember of the
kingdom of ends so human beings to be
acting through goodwill means they are
following their duty of the categorical
imperative and all beings should follow
this Duty at all times and no matter
what if we all do that we will
eventually create the states of peace
and harmony very interesting theory I
can see a lot of positive reasons to
adopt the Kantian ethics approach to
morality we do have clear-cut laws to
follow so it's straightforward to grasp
and live by exactly it also applies to
all humans and all humans are treated
equally as parts of the categorical
imperative yes but there are also some
big ethical problems within this theory
what are they well kans theory is so
focused on duty it completely disregards
the outcome of the situation yes but
we've seen the problems of ethical
theories when you solely focus on the
outcome of situations we saw this with
utilitarianism it can lead to the most
morally depraved actions become
impermissible I agree we shouldn't be
completely focused on outcome on the
other hand we shouldn't completely
dismiss outcome in favor of duty because
if we do this can lead to morally
questionable situations like what okay
let's use the Lying scenario you used
before we are bound by the duty to never
lie we thought about making lying
universally permitted and this
contradicted our rational will let's say
you're at work and a former employee who
is fired the day before storms into the
office with an axe they are looking for
the boss who fired them as they want to
kill them this person then confronts you
and asks is the boss in the office in
this situation you are bound by duty to
never lie you must then tell the Axman
the truth knowing that your boss is
going to be murdered according to Kant
the moral choice is to tell the truth
even though in this situation the moral
choice will lead to murder yes I see
what you mean also what happens when two
duties conflict let's suppose that I
have a moral duty to keep promises and I
was have a moral duty to help people who
are suffering let's suppose I promised
to take my friends to the cinema as I'm
on my way to take them to the cinema I
noticed someone on the floor needed
medical assistance do I fulfill my
promise of duty
take my friend to the cinema and leave
the person on the floor to die or do I
fulfill my duty of helping a suffering
person and break my promise to take my
friend to the cinema interesting point
so Gansey and ethics does not help in
these moral dilemmas well could we not
grade our goodwill and we'd fulfilled
the duties which exercise the most
goodwill per action so in the case of
the promise we can see that saving the
life is a better actor than going to the
cinema so we can break the promise in
that situation or in the case of the
Axman we can see that lying in order to
save a life it's a better exercise of
goodwill yes but that's effectively goes
against the concept of the categorical
imperative because then our duties are
no longer categorical and they can be
broken when we think it's the morally
justifiable thing to do this will slowly
lead us to a utilitarian approach to
ethics or we are now concerned with the
consequence of each situation and not
the duty each action then relies on the
good we believe it will generate and
Duty would eventually become meaningless
yes I see the problem
and finally the idea of Duty and a way
to act in all situations is unrealistic
no two situations are exactly the same
so in that case no two actions can be
exactly the same during action X and
situation a may be rights but doing
action X and situation B may be wrong
just because it is wrong in one
situation does not mean it's wrong in
all situations it seems can give us a
blanket ban to actions that could be
conceived of as wrong in one situation
even if they are right in other
situations every situation is unique and
so moral actions cannot be absolute good
point well that's all the time we have
for now thank you for watching we hope
you enjoyed the vibe don't forget to
Like share and subscribe look forward to
seeing y'all soon