See also http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~strawser/kant%20and%20aristotle.ppt for additional information on Kantian Deontology and Aristotle's virtue ethics.

Some Notes on Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant's moral theory is one of the most complicated that you will see in this (or any other) ethics course. It is a non-consequentialist theory focused on moral duty. As such, it is a deontological ethical theory.

Kant's moral theory is developed, like his epistemology and metaphysics, largely from the influence of David Hume. But unlike Hume, Kant didn't claim that cause-effect relationships were simply objects of belief. His position was that we come "wired" with cause-effect as part of the constitution of our minds, and we organize our experience into this category of the understanding (i.e., we organize our experiences in a variety of ways, one of which is cause-effect). The same goes for the notion of "substance." Part of our "intellectual apparatus" is to categorize things in the world as certain "types" of things (categories), and we arrange our experiences in our own minds consistently with the way we are "hard-wired" (so to speak) to do so.

But again, what does all of that have to do with ethics, with a good life, with right and wrong, good and bad? Good question. Kant's position was that there is only one capacity that leads to absolute certainty, and that is pure rationality. Through reason, it is possible to derive claims that are 100% reliable. But unlike other ethical theorists (such as Hobbes, among many others, for example), rather than to base one's ethical claims on something as variable and uncertain as human desires and aversions, what we should do, if we wish to find absolute certainty in the moral realm, is to devote our attention to the derivation of an ultimate rule of morality based on reason. On Kant's reasoning, we notice in the natural world, for example, that the natural laws hold regardless of anyone's wishes, inclinations or desires. They simply are the case. His quest was to find a roughly analogous kind of law for ethics.

His reasoning is naturalistic at the beginning. He makes the claim that there are no organs in our physical body that have no function or purpose. In the same manner of reasoning, we have to ask ourselves what is the function of our rational capacity. It must be, he reasoned, that it is for finding truth and knowledge since pure reason leads us to certainty in our conclusions. So if you want to derive an ultimate rule of morality, you will not be able to do so by appealing to our desires and aversions, because desires and aversions not only change over time between people, but also within individual people. One may note, for example, that he or she does not prefer the same things at the age of 30 that were desired or preferred at the age of 20, and 20 year olds do not desire or prefer the same things at that age that they did when they were very young children. Desire and aversion, therefore, are out of the question with respect to deriving rules of morality. Reason, however, yields laws. And laws are to be followed and understood without exception.

Furthermore, for Kant, we are beings with intrinsic value and have the capacity through our power of reason to derive rules of morality for ourselves (notice here, too, the reliance on individual reason as the foundation of morality). We are, in short, free. As free, rational beings, the ultimate rule of morality that we derive will be one that is the product of our reason and, as a product of the reason of a rational being, not only does the being command respect, but so also does the ultimate moral rule derived. For Kant, then, to follow the ultimate law of morality (he called it "The Categorical Imperative") is to act as a free and rational being who follows it out of respect for duty. This means, too, that Kant's moral theory will not be dependent upon considerations of the results of one's actions, or upon the production of happiness for oneself or for others. The right thing to do is determined by reason and nothing else.

Readings, Notes, Videos, Etc.

• Very Strongly Suggested.  Podcast on Kantian Ethics:  See Nigel Warburton's Philosophy: The Classics, Kant's Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals (chapter on Kant):  http://www.philclassics.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=261737#

• Further, Ethics Updates has the following video lecture on Kant.  See http://ethics.sandiego.edu/video/Theory/Kant/Kant_rm.html. You could instead go to Professor G.S.McCord's site at the Univ of North Carolina, who has the following .pdf file with notes/summary at http://www.unc.edu/~gsmunc/phil22/Kantsum.pdf.
• Suggested/Optional.  If you have the time or the inclination to do so, you should read a bit more on Kant's ethics.  The full text of Kant's Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals is available at: http://philosophy.eserver.org/kant/metaphys-of-morals.txt .  It is LONG.
• Optional/Suggested: Ethics Updates Presentation on Kantian Ethics (Optional, Suggested). See http://ethics.acusd.edu/presentations/Theory/Kant/index_files/frame.htm
• Suggested, Optional. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy site on Immanuel Kant. See http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-moral