Questions tagged [categorical-imperative]
The categorical-imperative tag has no usage guidance.
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Does Kant think we have an imperfect duty to not take intoxicants?
I want to smoke a cigarette to feel better. I want to smoke opium to feel better.
I think we can ignore the consequences of everyone performing this action (in similar situations), mass addiction and ...
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If the modern understanding of the categorical/hypothetical distinction is better than Kant's, does this undermine the categorical imperative?
In first-order logic (FOL), we have dedicated connectives for conditionals and disjunctions. Again in FOL, we can turn a conditional into a disjunction, though. Frege's logic has a judgment stroke, or ...
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How this principle related to Golden Rule and Eye for an Eye is called?
Had long admiration to this example:
When criminals were sent to isolated island centuries ago they suddenly realized that it's not fun anymore when everyone is criminal. And switched to one of most ...
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How is it Kant's view that lying is always wrong consistent with his view that killing in self-defense is permissable?
In his essay, "On the Supposed Right to Lie Because of Philanthropic Concerns" Kant seems to be arguing that lying is always wrong, even if it could save someone's life from a murderer. He ...
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Conjunctive imperatives can be in-itself imperatives?
One of Hannah Arendt's claims about the more abstract side of totalitarianism was a resistance to doing things "for their own sakes," but so where everything was made to subserve an ever-...
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Is Kantian ethics silent on most complex moral questions?
The examples Kant gives for the application of the CI (categorical imperative) are relatively simple and unproblematic.
Of course, it's contentious to regard lying for the greater good as immoral, but ...
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A concept of strong free will that's able to be represented in category theory?
Are there any such things as category theories where the category is an indeterminist/postdeterminist form of free will? Let's say, maybe it is a category where each object is an object of choice, ...
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Misconception surrounding Kant's categorical imperative?
It is widely known that Kant's first formulation of the categorical imperative, in his Metaphysics of Ethics, is as shown:
Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that ...
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We-intentions and the kingdom-of-ends version of the categorical imperative
One of Allen Wood's most finely ground axes was his contention that, notwithstanding certain translations/interpretations of Kant's writings on categorical imperatives, the three primary formulations ...
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Kant and activities that are harmless only if few people perform them (not all people)
I'm trying to study Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals and I have a question whose answer I couldn't find through google, perhaps because I'm misinterpreting something.
Wouldn't living as an ...
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Are categorical imperatives employed in non-Kantian ethical theories?
Are categorical imperatives employed in non-Kantian ethical theories?
For example, consider utilitarianism's principle "act so that the overall happiness is maximised". Is this not a ...
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Kant's categorical imperative and casual sex. Why does casual sex necessarily involve using someone as a mere means?
I am writing a paper on Kant's principle and test of universalizability. It seems that the test can allow for morally permissible casual sex (i.e., sex outside the Kantian marriage), e.g., consider ...
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What say Kantian ethics about capitalism?
As I did read, it does not look like Kantian ethics favors socialism (especially given it requires slavery by economic imperative), but I would like a more rigorous analysis.
Note that
Recall that ...
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Cassirer and the Categorical Imperative
I've been reading some of the shorter works of the neo-Kantian and proto-semiologist Ernst Cassirer. While I find him a valuable bridge across the "continental divide," I'm not sure yet that ...
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Is the Categorical Imperative Simply Bad Math? :)
The title is clickbait, but the question is not.
First, The Categorical Imperative:
Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.
...
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Categorical imperative vs. Consequentialism
i am new to philosophy. I am willing to understand where is the fine border between action-based and consequence-based morals:
To my understanding a deontologist judges an action irrelative of the ...
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The "only" in, "Act only on that maxim..."
Is the categorical imperative two imperatives implicitly in one? I'm not asking about the congruence or equivalence of the formulations; rather, I'm asking whether, "Act only on that maxim...&...
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What motivated Kant to focus on a relatively small set of principles when discussing morality?
Let’s use the famous example. Kant argues that lying is categorically bad because, even though lying can be good in narrow circumstances, one cannot will lying to be okay in a universal way.
However, ...
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Why isn’t the Kantian categorical imperative equal to utilitarian principles with additional constraints?
This is how I understood the categorical imperative: an action is moral if it, when universalized (the constraint), is good (utilitarian).
The need to universalize can be seen as a constraint: that is,...
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Is the Kantian CI universalization conceived of as everyone doing the act at the same time?
Is the Kantian CI universalization conceived of as everyone doing the act at the same time?
Is suicide prohibited if you cannot will everyone killing themselves at the same time, or is a progressive ...
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The best definition on what is moral/good [closed]
In my view, the history of humanity is filled with individuals who have proposed systems from which morality, or what is good, is defined.
Such systems range from a person claiming to be the moral ...
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For Kant, is it immoral to offer solutions that may backfire when generalized?
I once read long ago Immanuel Kant came up with a model of Maxim. What I interpreted of it is basically that "if everyone does this and it still works in the long run, then it is right."
This makes ...
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Is the following application of Kant's Categorical Imperative valid?
I'm reading about Kantian ethics and my question is if the maxim/prescription "Increase my Darwinian Fitness" is valid according to Kant's Categorical Imperative.
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How Kant's second formulation of the categorical imperative interacts with consent
Kant's second formulation (or the "ends in themselves" formulation) says:
use humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end, never merely as ...
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How is Kantian's Universality Formulation identical to his Humanity Formulation (Principle of Ends)?
Kant states that the humanity formulation was substantively identical with his first formulation of the categorical imperative (universal law of nature), but I do not see how he came to that ...
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Categorical imperative defeating division of labor?
Suppose the following maxim.
Goal: satisfy basic needs: food, water, sleep, etc.
Method: having a specialization, getting money for work, spend money to satisfy basic needs.
Conditions: capitalism, ...
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Universalizability reductio ad absurdum
My 13-year-old son is attending philosophy camp and one of his homework assignments is to come up with some objections to Kantianism. In a previous conversations I suggested a ridiculous counter-...
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Applying the Mere Means principle
I am trying to understand Kant's Second Categorical Imperative:
Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an ...
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Can the idea of "imperfect" categorical imperatives be used without 'duty'?
Can the idea of "imperfect" categorical imperatives be used without 'duty'? So that e.g. I can say that something has an intrinsic value, and not hypothetically, but it is always valuable, even-though ...
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Kant and the Categorical Imperatives
Did Immanuel Kant intend for the Categorical Imperatives to be used together, or separately, when trying to determine an actions ethicality or morality
If you answer yes, individually, then how does ...
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What are some examples of categorical imperatives/universalizable maxims relevant to modern ethics?
I know this question has been widely asked, and that the answer may not be as straightforward as the question, which is partly why I'm asking. It's been a long time since I sat in a philosophy class, ...
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A good explanation for why failing Kant's categorical imperative = morally wrong action?
More precisely, can someone provide a relatively intuitive explanation or justification for why failing the categorical imperative test should be indicative of an action which is morally wrong?
I'm ...
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Contemporary literature on Kantian ethics?
After reading some works, mainly by Kosgaard, I was wondering if there were any other in-depth contemporary literature looking into Kantian ethics and, more precisely, into its problems (and their ...
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Is there an answer to false positives/negatives of Kant's categorical imperative?
I recently read some papers on Kant's categorical imperative (McCarty, Kosgaard, Gressis mainly) on how to properly formulate a maxim according to him, and on the multiple problems linked to those ...
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If a moral law contains "If-then/Unless-then" clauses, is it still Kantian?
An argument against Kant's categorical imperative is the "hiding Jews from the Nazis" example:
"Per the categorical imperative, you should never lie. Therefore if you are hiding Jews in the basement ...
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Why does Kant consider "rational agents," humans, as ends in themselves and not means?
This is according to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
"Kant argues that the moral law must be aimed at an end that is not merely instrumental, but is rather an end in itself. Only rational ...
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Categorical Imperatives and Imbalances of Power
My fundamental question here, is does Kant's categorical imperative only make sense when considering ethics among people with similar levels of power? It seems Kant's argument assumes that all people ...
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How specific to a set of circumstances can the categorical imperative be?
I'm having trouble understanding just how specific the circumstances can be when using the categorical imperative. My general understanding is that the categorical imperative urges you to consider ...
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Kant's second formulation
In Kant's Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, he gives examples of uses of the Humanity Imperative, the first being about suicide.
I have a scenario in which there is a boy who has to choose ...
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For Kant, why are all preferences only conditionally valuable?
It's not clear to me why rational beings are objective ends. It certainly seems possible that every rational being could hold itself as an end, but it is by no means the case necessary that they do ...
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Are there counter examples to Kant's perfect duties?
Are there exceptions to Kant's perfect duties - duties always or never to do X? By this I mean, does the doctrine of perfect duties generate counter-examples - situations in which if we followed the ...
user6917
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In Kant, how do Universalizability and Freedom relate to each other?
I have read the following book on Kant: Kant on the Right to Freedom
This is my understanding of Kantianism and freedom:
Reason must be the basis of all morality. (Moral realism fails).
This ...
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Can we be intuistionists about the CI? [closed]
Can we simply intuit the value of and how to respect someone's dignity, without allowing its equivalence to rational formulations as in the Universal Law of Nature Formula?
I just think that the ...
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Kant's universalization explained, How does one universalize a thing?
I am having some doubts in understanding the universalisation of maxims in Kant's Categorical Imperative.
For instance, one can determine whether a maxim of lying to secure a loan is moral by ...
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Mutually exclusive obligations under the categorical imperative
How, according to Kant, ought we respond when the categorical imperative obliges us to take two mutually-exclusive courses of action?
For instance if two people are being lowered into a pit of lava.
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"Repugnant conclusions" following from Kant's imperative to never use humans only as means to an end?
Many formulations of utilitarian consequentialism famously lead to a range of "repugnant conclusions", such as:
it would be moral to execute an innocent person if this act could deter at least two ...
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According to Kant Is it immoral to do what I cannot conceive of everyone doing succesfully?
I just want to check that I understand perfect duties.
First, formulate a maxim that enshrines your reason for acting as you
propose. Second, recast that maxim as a universal law of nature
governing ...
user6917
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Can trivial and ridiculous perfect duties be constructed?
First, formulate a maxim that enshrines your reason for acting as you
propose. Second, recast that maxim as a universal law of nature
governing all rational agents, and so as holding that all must,...
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How is Kant's 'Kingdom of Ends' anything more than just a combination of the first 2 maxims?
In Kant's categorical imperative, he outlines 3 maxims:
Universal moral law: ‘Only act on a maxim that you could will should become a universal law.’
Treat people as ends: ‘Act so as to treat others ...
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Is being a philosopher immoral according to Kant?
More specifically, is taking up any job immoral according to Kant? Because by the Categorical Imperative, since we don't wish that everyone in the world became a philosopher/scientist/engineer etc.?
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