Immanuel Kant Essays (Examples)

Immanuel Kant
Today, Immanuel Kant is still considered one of business ethics' most predominate philosophers. Thus in a way, the study of business ethics is founded on the ideas floated by Kant and those who shared in his opinions. In this text, I will develop a brief bibliography of Immanuel Kant and later describe the contributions he made to the study of Business Ethics.

Immanuel Kant: A Brief Bibliography

Born in 1724 at Konigsberg, East Prussia, Immanuel Kant spent his first formative years with his devout evangelical Protestant family (artin and Bailey, 2011). In away, his family's modest means were not sufficient to guarantee Kant Enrolment in a reputable school. Kant was however soon enrolled in a respected local secondary school by a Lutheran pastor who identified young Kant's unique talents. Later on, Kant got a place at a Pietist institution where he became primarily interested in Latin classics. The…

Immanuel Kant
easons for Kant's Belief that there are No Exceptions to the Duty Not to Lie

Lying involves making a statement that is largely untruthful. Kant believes that there can be no exceptions to the duty not to lie - regardless of the consequences. For instance, he argues that it is wrong to lie to a would-be murderer, in order to save the life of an innocent child. In this case, the would-be murderer has set out on a murder course, and hence forfeited his own right. Lying to him would amount to violation of his rights. Kant's view is that any lie, regardless of circumstances, disregards goodwill, goes against the motive and principle of duty, and is not in conformity with the universality principle.

With regard to lying and goodwill, it should be noted that in life, "we have to struggle against unruly impulses and desires; a good…

Immanuel Kant
Freedom Motive and Duty

Kant believed possessing and maintaining one's moral goodness is the very condition under which anything else is worth having or pursuing. Intelligence and even pleasure are worth having only on the condition that they do not require giving up one's fundamental moral convictions. The value of a good will thus cannot be that it gains certain valuable ends, whether of our own or of others, since their value is entirely conditional on our possessing and maintaining a good will. Its goodness must not depend on obtaining any particular ends. A good will must then also be good in itself and not in virtue of its relationship to other things such as an individual's own happiness or overall welfare.

A good will is a will whose decisions are wholly determined by moral demands or Moral Law. Human beings view this Law as a constraint on…

Kant would certainly agree with Cohen, but there are many who criticize that view as outdated and inhumane.
Kant's views do not acknowledge that animals could have feelings. Singer continues, "[W]e know that these animals have nervous systems very like ours, which respond physiologically like ours do when the animal is in circumstances in which we would feel pain: an initial rise of blood pressure, dilated pupils, perspiration, an increased pulse rate, and, if the stimulus continues, a fall in blood pressure" (Singer). Anyone who has interacted with animals has seen an animal react sharply to pain or punishment, and many studies have been completed that animals have complex brains, and some have extremely complex societies, with clear leaders and pecking orders, such as wolves and elephants. Animals can express their pain with cries, screams, and avoidance of the things that cause pain, which means not only do they feel…

Immanuel Kant that the particular divisions of ancient philosophy be explained so that he may offer his reconciliation between the major accomplishments of the past by avoiding their drawbacks. Essentially, many of Kant's philosophical efforts can be seen as innovative reactions to the brilliantly constructed skepticism of David Hume. Hume made it obvious that both the rationalists and empiricists must be wrong -- or at least only partially right -- so Kant must emphasize their differences in order to offer his alternative marriage between material and form.
Kant is a rationalist of a specific kind. He believes that the a priori deductive reasoning of previous rationalists must be groundless -- it is not rooted in the human experience. Nevertheless, he still believes that the human mind is centrally what stands at the crossroads of decision; rational thought, he contends, can lead us to determining the morality of our actions. It…

Kant, Hanslick and Music
Kant and Hanslick on Music and the Beauty Thereof

Several theories have been formulated regarding how art should be evaluated aesthetically and how this aesthetic evaluation can be applied to music. hile some contend that aesthetics and music should be evaluated from a Marxist perspective in which socio-historic factors are taken into consideration, others contend that a work of art should be judged based upon its form or structure. In order to better understand what can and is considered beautiful, one can look to Immanuel Kant's The Critique of Judgment; likewise, Eduard Hanslick in Vom Musikalisch-Schonen: Ein Betrag Zur Revision der Asthetik der Tonkunst (On the Musically Beautiful: A Contribution Towards the Revision of the Aesthetics of Music) is able to build upon Kant's arguments regarding beauty and attempt to define what makes music aesthetically pleasing.

Music is a special kind of art because it is…

Moral Objectivism: Utilitarianism vs. Kantian Deontology
There are Four Parts Total. You must Complete All Four.

"Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do." (a) What does Jeremy Bentham mean by this quote? (b) How does Robert Nozick's main point in "The Experience Machine" bear on the view(s) that Bentham presents in this quote? (c) Explain the differences between Bentham and John Stuart Mill in regards to the issue of what makes one pleasure more valuable than another.

Bentham is something of a materialist who believes that people make decisions based on their own personal utility. For example, if you believe that the risk associated with robbing a bank than the potential gain then you would rationally carry out the act. If…

Engagements in actions that are thought to be virtuous make one to be virtuous. On the other hand, immorality arises when a person has filed to live up to the requirements of the good habits and actions expected of him or her. Deontologists take positive actions as the posterior characteristics. Utilitarian theory claims that the product of an act determines whether it is a virtue or vice. If the product of an act produces happiness to a greater population, then it is virtuous. On the other hand, if the action yields happiness to a small number of people, then it does not qualify to be called a virtue; it is a vice.
Why John Stuart Mill ethical theory of utilitarianism is hedonistic

Utilitarian theory is hedonistic because Mill inserts the facets of quantitative and qualitative approaches that exemplify the aspect of moral dilemma within the theory. According to utilitarianism, the…

Luther and Kant: Visions of Freedom
Freedom carries so many meanings, both denotations and connotations. Perhaps no concept has been hashed out more by western philosophers throughout the centuries. The ramifications of their arguments are vast: as "free" people, we lean heavily on the concept of freedom, but our laws and court cases constantly struggle to define what exactly we can and cannot do. May we burn the flag, for instance? Is that considered one of our "freedoms?" Or may we shout "Fire!" In a crowded theater? Martin Luther, in his "Preface to the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans" claims that people are free when their actions naturally mimic laws and morality to such an extent that those laws are rendered unnecessary. Immanuel Kant, in his "An Answer to the Question: hat is Enlightenment?" takes an apposite view: Freedom for Kant is the ability to wield one's reasoning…

Because the imperative is something that stems from the rational will, adherence to it is really only adherence to the law that the will itself created. The will, that is, is acting as the will tells itself it has to. Due to the circular nature of the will's imperative to behave a certain way, obedience to the imperative is actually obedience to the self, and obeying moral law requires nothing more or less than complete self-direction. The premise that moral law -- the categorical imperative -- is born out of the rational will is central to Kant's theory of ethics: "each individual agent regards itself as determining, by its decision to act in a certain way, that everyone (including itself) will always act according to the same general rule in the future" (Kemerling 2002). This is why the imerative is categorical, or universal, and at the same time an entirely…

Enlightenment
relates man's freedom to his immaturity, with a special focus on man in relation to society. In "Preface to the Epistle of St. Paul" Martin Luther describes man's freedom in relation to Christian religion. These works not only differ in their content, but are contradictory in meaning, the differences stemming from the fact that Kant places society at the center of freedom while Luther places God at the center.

The first restriction on man's freedom presented is that of the law. However, Kant and Luther treat the law in very different ways. Luther argues that the law is more than just an action, and that one is not lawful unless they follow the law willingly, "His [God's] law must be fulfilled in your heart, and cannot be obeyed if you merely perform certain acts" (Luther 20). Luther's statement shows that there is more to law than merely obeying, the…

Philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre [...] MacIntyre's criticism of duty-based and goal-based moral theory, and his reasons for preferring a right-based moral theory. It will also include reactions to his views and his virtue-based moral theory.
MACINTYRE'S MORAL THEORIES

MacIntyre criticizes duty-based and goal-based moral theories on several levels. He feels morals based on duty and goals are not virtuous, and therefore do not belong in moral theory, and that the moral character people develop from living by these theories is flawed. The child learning to play chess is an excellent example of both of these theories, and why MacIntyre feels they do not work. The child is not learning to play chess because it wants to learn. The child is learning to play chess because MacIntyre wants it to learn, and gives it a goal, candy, and a duty, "play with me." Eventually he hopes the child will derive satisfaction…

Kant and Rousseau
Reducing Conflicts Between States

The Theories of the Great Philosophers Rousseau and Kant

The great philosophers of the 18th century were the first of their kind to fully encapsulate what it meant to be an ethnocentric state, rather than a simple nation or territory, and also were the first philosophers able to address the question of war between states as not merely individual struggles for dominance, but rather persistent frictions present in the system of states themselves. The formal idea of statehood came of age in the Peace of estphalia in 1648, which ended the Thirty Year's ar, and affirmed the domination of the central government of each state as the supreme power of the land, rather than any religious or social power. At this time, every state was essentially a dictatorship, and the world was divided into fiefdoms. The peace reached at estphalia created the conditions…

If Kant's points are to be assimilated when adopting a moral stance which is consistent with man's dignity, such absolute terms are inevitably defined by dominant social structures, bringing us to the application of a normative theoretical structure. The inextricable relationship which theology and morality have shared throughout history tends to have a tangible impact on the way these hegemonic standards are defined.
And Kant, rejects any flexibility outright, however. Beyond its deviation from his established disposition toward moral absolutes, such variation violates Kant's maxim about man as an end rather than a means. Man is to be the motive for moral acts, with his dignity defining right and wrong. Indeed, as he pointedly phrases it, "the laws of morality are laws according to which everything ought to happen; they allow for conditions under which what ought to happen doesn't happen." (Kant, 1)

Counter-argument:

Like Kant, Camus asserts a clear…

According to Aristotle, a man's true worth is known by his deeds that is how he acts and reacts in certain situations. He holds the view that a person's actions can be judged by a certain standard of perfection which he calls 'good'.
Conclusions

Critique of Judgment is a masterpiece of Kant that attempts to correlate aesthetic and moral judgments. In his work he tries to find moral dimensions to concepts of sublimity and beauty. He also put forward his ideas on art and considers beauty as it essential component. In certain parts of his writing he posits that beauty can be considered superior to art on the basis of its purposiveness. He shows that nature or natural beauty is compatible with morally good and that our moral ideas are well-matched with nature. His work expounds on art, beauty, morality and ethics. His series of critiques with last one as…

eligion through its sanctity, and law-giving through its majesty, may seek to exempt themselves from it. But they then awaken just suspicion, and cannot claim the sincere respect which reason accords only to that which has been able to sustain the test of free and open examination.
Axi[n])

The debate of science and metaphysics arises when one wonders if metaphysics is even a science or do we really need it. Kant puts forward this question to explain why metaphysics is a science and why it is needed. He argues that metaphysics is needed, 'if not as science, yet still as natural disposition' because human reason is naturally pre-disposed 'by an inward need', and not just by 'idle desire', to raise metaphysical questions that science alone cannot answer. (B21-2). For example the questions about soul or the existence of God come to our minds naturally and this is where metaphysics steps…

The Critique of Pure eason proposed and researched, highlighting expertise of how the mind's synthetic framework makes up the world. As a review of taste, such a technique does not try to separate some home that is distinct to beautiful items, however rather intends at exposing how the mind discovers specific items beautiful. Kant thinks that this is possible since the intellect that is associated with common spatiotemporal experience, so it is just fitting to look initially at the nature of these professors prior to continuing to how they associate with aesthetic judgments. An additional reason to continue in this way is that the Critique of the Power of Judgment is scant when it concerns explicating the complimentary play of the creativity and understanding Kant anticipates that his readers have actually accumulated this from the first Critique.
In the Critique of Pure eason we see that in determinative judgments the…

Once again, the moral value of the matter in question is proven to be wrong.
Therefore, the fundamental principles which need to be taken into consideration when discussing the Kantian ethics are represented by the categorical imperative, humanity and autonomy. The most important value that man needs to respect is life. Just like he will not harm another person's life, he must never harm his own. Annulling one's self means not only annulling your own humanity, but also using it as a means for reaching happiness. This is wrong, because humanity in all its forms and manifestations should be dealt with as a goal in itself and never as a mere means.

It might be argued that happiness is the supreme goal of all the human beings. When life is made only of things which cause misery and it is clear that there is no hope for things to get…

For example if a person feels that life without wealth is meaningless, he might decide that if he ever becomes poor, he would become a hermit and quit social life. This would be his maxim and thus a principle by which he must abide when such a situation arises. Kant knew that only rational being could be expected to have a maxim of morality. 'Everything in nature, works in accordance with laws. Only a rational being has the power to act in accordance with his idea of laws, that is, in accordance with principles.' (Gr, 412)
However a person who has a maxim is not allowed acting on it unless he decides that it is something he would want for everyone. Kant argues that unless a person wants to attach universality to this maxim, it cannot be considered a correct principle or a moral one. this is known as the…

Rousseau offers a mix of philosophical notions of liberty with advice and opinions on how to structure a government that promotes equality and liberty, but not excessively so, that the will of the majority or strong overcomes the will or the rights of the minority. as, unlike the founders of America, Rousseau was not concerned with a real, live, specific historical situation he could to some extent afford to be more theoretical in his orientation. The philosopher Immanuel Kant was even more concerned with the philosophical notions of liberty, but he detached them from their functioning in government and instead was concerned about human being's innate liberty to do morally good or evil actions. Kant saw morality as existing not as something that could be constructed at will by human beings, but as something that existed for all time, and to be commensurate with the categorical imperative, people must act…

Kant, Rousseau, Locke
In his book Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, how does Kant apply these concepts? Discuss Kant's EACH use of: - sensibility - transcendental idealism - objective reality - understanding - Copernican revolution

The philosophical concept of transcendental idealism holds that the subjective qualities of human perception affect how we perceive certain objects, and experience is not simply grounded in the qualities of 'things in and of themselves.' e perceive objects through our sensibilities and our sensibilities are not the same as the objective reality of a substance. "Kant's idea is that objects are given through the sensibility (in intuitions), they are thought through the understanding (through concepts), and our experience of them comes from judgments (which involve the synthesis of intuitions and concepts in the unity of apperception). (For Kant, intuitions are representations of empirical objects, as -- indeterminate -- appearances)" ("Sensibility," Kant Dictionary, 2012).

The idea…

Kant says "The inherent value of the world, the summun bonum [highest good], is freedom in accordance with a will which is not necessitated to action. Freedom is thus the inner value of the world." How would Nietzsche evaluate this statement?
In contrast to the philosopher Immanuel Kant, Frederick Nietzsche often expressed his anger over the ways that pagan and Classical values, as manifest in ancient Rome and ancient Greece, had been overcome in Western philosophy by notions of the superiority of Christian practices and thought. Along the lines of Christian belief structures, Kant stressed that the indivdiual ought to always act as if he or she was setting the standards for the rest of humanity, and thus function as if creating the summum bonum, or highest good for all, no matter what his or her station or circumstances in life. The goodness of Christianity, for Kant, was that as…

If God Exists is Murder Immoral
To assert that murder is immoral because God exists is to connect a number of dots, albeit logically, that nonetheless requires discussion in order to be properly understood. As Immanuel Kant points out, God is viewed by people as having attributes which determine the order upon which one should base his own actions. In other words, “the concept of God” has a “function” that man should be aware of, as it informs his own critical thinking, behavior, and understanding of right and wrong (“Kant’s Philosophy of Religion”). Indeed, Kant “sought to locate the concept of God within a systematically ordered set of basic philosophical principles that account for the order and structure of world” (“Kant’s Philosophy of Religion”). Into this order and structure would fall questions such as, “Is murder immoral?” Kant’s system was not stagnant, however; it developed over time and evolved into…

Moral Worth
Present, explain, and assess the thesis that only acts done from duty have moral worth

In his Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Immanuel Kant addresses the issue of how people can determine the moral value of actions. His central claim is that only acts that are done out of duty can be considered to have any moral value. Implicit in this topic is the need to reconcile the intent of one's actions with the result of their actions. Kant explores exactly where morality can be located when identifying the value of one's actions. At stake in Kant's argument is whether there is in fact an a priori framework for how people should behave, and where virtue is found.

At the beginning of the Groundwork, Kant explains the notion of logic and defines the terms that he deploys to explain his governing thesis. These terms include: good will,…

Pure Reason underscores the theory of Immanuel Kant that cognition depends on the employment of transcendental processes, which are contingent of the concept of categories. Kant's categories describe the phenomenon of pure understanding. For Kant, pure understanding is the state that permits and defines the corridor of reality as it is realized in the human mind. In The Critique of Pure Reason Kant seemed more interested in stating the existence of the categories than in defining them: "I purposely omit the definitions of the categories in this treatise. I shall analyze these conceptions only so far as is necessary for the doctrine of method, which is to form a part of this critique." Kant was content to allow a sweeping depiction of the categories rather than delve into exhaustive subtleties of them.
Comprehending Kant's categories requires an appreciation of his starting point, which was a response to the prevailing philosophical…

In Cultural Ethical elativism, Universalism, Absolutism (2005), it was mentioned that Kant said that people engage a particular space in creation and morality can be figured out in one supreme directive of reason or imperative that all responsibilities and duties drawn from; Kant described an imperative as any intention which asserts a particular act or inaction to be compulsory; a hypothetical imperative requires action in a particular condition: "if I wish to quench my thirst, I must drink something;" -- a categorical imperative, in contrast, indicates an absolute, unconditional obligation that states its influence in all conditions, both necessary as well as justified as an end in itself; and it is most recognized in its first expression: "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."

In Cultural Ethical elativism, Universalism, Absolutism (2005), it was stated that Kant…

This might or might not mean that a business owner would adhere to generally accepted laws and codes. I do not think that I would like to live in such a world, since contradictions might too easily arise. Instead, I would add an extra element to the categorical imperative suggested by Kant.
De Waal's theory adds a dimension to Kant's categorical imperative. He claims that even animals have a culture of compassion and reciprocity, which is echoed in the human race. According to this theory, the rational mind is not the sole element in human decision making, but emotions such as empathy and compassion also play a role. One might therefore modify the maxim by saying I would maximize my profits within reasonable limits of empathy and reciprocity. In other words, as a business owner, I would empathize with the financial plight of my workers by paying them according to…

For example, many individuals value freedom and knowledge as things that can bring happiness. So, having their own value, these things are parts of happiness.
Mill believed that everyone's happiness is important. He believed in what he called the 'greatest happiness principle.' According to the greatest happiness principle, a person is ethically required to try to bring about the consequences that would lead to the greatest amount of happiness for everyone affected. More simple stated, if a person can produce more happiness (and/or less suffering) in a certain situation, then he or she is ethically obligated to do so. In more contemporary ethical terms, this is called the requirement to 'maximize happiness. If one was considering doing something for one's own happiness, but that action would cause others suffering, then Mill would have to take both of the sides into account in deciding whether or not the action should morally…

In this "slave morality," as Nietzsche states, the values of the master morality, which are proper, and turned around, which undermines the natural order. He believes the natural order was that the strong continue to succeed at the cost of the weaker members of society. In response to their lowered status in the order, the caste used their hatred, revenge, and resentment to create morals that would weaken the master class. This "slave revolt," according to Nietzsche, turned acts that should be admired, such as force, into "evil" acts, while acts that went against the natural law, such as self-sacrifice and forgiveness, as "good." It created a set of moral values related to "good vs. evil" as opposed to "good vs. bad," understood aesthetically as opposed to morally (Nietzsche, Essay I & II).

According to Nietzsche, this lead to a false sense of moral responsibility, since the fear of those…

Living authentically "as if" my actions had the force of reason strikes me as very similar to living in deliberate opposition to reason -- which, in a contemporary milieu, often entails structuring a life according to personal experience or even faith. In an era in which the irrational is widely accepted and even embraced -- through the thought of Freud, Kierkegaard, and others in addition to Nietzsche himself -- Kant's confidence in the a priori categories of reason as self-evident universal organizing principles seems innocent at best.
Finally, in a society that jealously protects the perspective of the individual, Kant's appeal to universal or even "categorical" patterns of thought and morality is difficult to integrate into everyday life. If society reserves judgment on moral questions, then how can we ascribe objective force to our own maxims for a just life? Perhaps ironically, the best way to live under such circumstances…

Kant's "Perpetual Peace"
In the paragraph beginning "Now in addition to ... " Kant is arguing that the republican constitution provides "purity of origin and source" (Kant, 113) or true interpretation of the law. A republican constitution, which by definition must be representative of a republic and the people existing within, must ultimately be concerned with the concept of perpetual peace. How can the republican constitution provide perpetual peace? Kant states that when a republican constitution is utilized, it must follow that in order for war to be declared the citizens of a nation must consent to this war (Kant, 113). Again, this is due to the fact that a republican constitution is not authoritarian or despotic in nature, but rather represents the will and desires of the citizenry of the land.

Kant argues that the citizenry of any state in a republic will have to consider all of the…

Courage, intelligence for example could be used for wrong purposes and hence it was important pre-requisite to have good will if an action was to be termed moral.
Intelligence, wit, judgment, and the other talents of the mind, however they be named, or courage, resoluteness, and perseverance as qualities of temperament, are doubtless in many respects good and desirable. But they can become extremely bad and harmful if the will, which is to make use of these gifts of nature and which in its special constitution is called character, is not good. (Kant 2: p 9)

John Stuart Mill on the other hand proposed a different theory of morality which stated that an action is right if it promotes happiness of the greatest number of people. In other words, if an action maximizes general happiness then it can be deemed moral. Mill felt that maximization of general happiness was the…

Philosophy
David Hume and Immanuel Kant have both had tremendous impact on the field of philosophy. Their contributions, especially "A treatise of human nature" by Hume and the "Critique of pure reason" by Kant are masterpieces in philosophical literature. oth of them have left their own novel ideas and concepts, which deeply influenced and gave a new understanding to domains as diverse as philosophy, politics and religion. Let us study the ideas of Hume and Kant in a little detail and try to have a comparative study of their philosophies.

Hume's Matters of Fact and Relations of ideas

Hume's analyses of human mentality is based on two different components namely impressions and ideas. Impressions are vivid and strong creations of our experiences while ideas are feeble reflections of the impressions. According to Hume all ideas have a preceding impression. All human belief systems are a result of the linking or…

"(Kant, 30) Thus, Dorothea's action coincides with the first formulation of the categorical imperative. Had she determined to refuse the request made by Casaubon, the law would have contained a contradiction in itself and thus would have been violated. It is arguable that when asked for help, a person should grant it at the expense of his or her personal comfort. The contrary law could not have any validity since it would deny the existence of kindness and selflessness among people. Dorothea acted selflessly, although she did waver to make this sacrifice simply because she did not feel the actual end of the action would be noble enough. Nevertheless, the immediate end, that of completing her duty to her husband as a fellow human being, is a noble end in itself, and this is why Dorothea chose to fulfill it. Dorothea significantly rejects the circumstance- that of having to perform…

Aristotle, Mill & Kant on emotion
Ethics and its role on Emotion of Pleasure: Views from Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and J.S. Mill

Analyzing the ethics of emotion, especially feelings of pleasure, is contemplated upon by the great philosophers Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill. Each philosophers have arguments about the ethics of human emotions; however, despite the differences in focus and discussion of this issue, all three philosophers that the path towards achieving happiness or emotion of pleasure is subsistence to individualism and rationalization of society. That is, Kant, Mill, and Aristotle emphasize the vital role that intellectual development plays in the achievement of happiness among individuals.

In Immanuel Kant's discussion of the ethics of emotion, he argues that feelings of pleasure should be generated morally and rationally -- that is, there is a conscious effort in the individual to achieve pleasure that is right not only for him/her…

And the freedom in question is the most harmless of all-namely, to make public use of one's reason in all matters" (Clarke 1997, 53). This added to classical liberalism's support of the freedom of speech and of the press. This all played a part in Kant's desire to apply reason to practical life. In The Conflict of the Faculties, he wrote in defense of the openness of the university as "an institution that exists to serve governments…and [bring about] enlightening ends" (Clarke 1997, 53-54). Thus once knowledge was separated from values, it could be harnessed to serve the human project. One area where Kant had an impact beyond philosophy has been in international relations theory. "According to the classical view of international politics, the international sphere is composed of sovereign states and characterized by anarchy" (Bartelson 1995, 257). People have order in their native land but see the rest of…

In these times, we do not just need to be good, or have a hazy sense of right and wrong but what we actually need is strength and courage to actually act on our beliefs and values. Kant maintained that goodness is something that gives " a positive command to a man, namely to bring all his capacities and inclinations under his (reason's) control and so to rule over himself... For unless reason holds the reins of government in its own hands, man's feelings and inclinations play the master over him." (Kant 1991, 208)
The concept of good will is also closely associated with Kant's theory of goodness. Kant felt that for a person to display signs of goodness, he must work with a good will. Good will is something which doesn't need any verification or additional evidence of it being a good and positive force. He further explained that…

Emanuel Kant Philosophy
Kant on the nature of the mind

Kant insinuated that the intrinsic features of the mind are finally linked to the extrinsic stimuli of the surrounding or environment that it processes. What the mind tells a person or processes is what the surrounding has fed into it and not a noble never seen before phenomenon. He also adds that what the mind projects are only the images or the appearances and not the real things as they are in themselves. He backs his claims by indicating that time and space which are the master definers of all things that we see in real life, are two things that do not exists within the things that they define or describe but are a projection and making of our own sense. This is true since there is nothing to do with time in a car race that is scheduled…

For instance Plato believed that rulers should only rule based on truth and reason and that the way to best live life itself was also based on truth and reason. This is something I agree with very strongly. When it comes to the Iraq war, for example, I feel that America's current leaders decided to start the war based not on truthfulness and reason, but for baser motives, such as coercion and a desire to expand their geographical and financial power. I strongly disagree with the war and neither Socrates nor Plato would have felt the war was justified, based on their ideas of truth, reason, and (for Plato) virtue. Plato believed that truth and reason led to virtue, and that therefore people who lived good lives were truthful, reasonable and virtuous. Like Plato, I agree that living a good life must be based on a foundation of truthfulness, about…

All the people know what the brain is, what it looks like and where it is located. This does not however constitute the basis for the idea of min, yet the concept exists and is powerful enough to give birth to endless debate.
Kant on the other hand underlines the fact that the properties which the mind has and which allow it to create meaning depend exclusively on the physical existence of the mind. Hume might be characterized as a skeptic who needs the empiric truth in order to be able to admit the validity of an existing concept/idea/thing. Kant on the other hand is more concerned with a theory which we might define as a transcendentalist one.

If the mind has the capacity of acknowledging the difference between the perception and the creation of the concepts, then it must be that the mind does not necessary need the physical…

Mill, Kant, Religion, And Gay Marriage
In theory, freedom and liberty for all appears to be an excellent concept, one which nearly everyone would embrace. However, the practice of this ideology is not always as halcyon as its theoretical mandate. Quite frequently, it is possible for there to be conflicts of interests presented due to the notion that everyone feels entitled to pursue that which he or she wishes. There are numerous examples of this intrinsic conflict of what essentially is a question of free will. One of the most salient of these examples can be illustrated in the issue of the rights of gays to pursue lawful marriage. On the one hand, various members of the gay and lesbian community believe that they should be legally permitted to engage in same sex marriages under their rights of freedom and the pursuance of their own respective happiness.

The conflict, of…

Plato and Kant
Plato's life span was between 427 BC and 347 BC. As a youth Plato possessed political visions, but he turned out disenchanted by the political authority of the city of Athens. He slowly turned out a follower of Socrates, adhering to his fundamental theory and conversational pattern of argument: the pursuance of virtue through inspection, results and additional inspection. The self-explanatory custom is one-minded in its inspection that Plato undertook many attires of poetry as a youth, only in the later point of life resorting to philosophy. Plato's chief donation was to philosophy, mathematics and science. Anyhow, it is not as yielding as one might anticipate envisaging Plato's philosophical visions. The cause for this is that Plato penned down no meticulous treatise providing his visions, rather he penned down innumerous conversations which are written in the form of debates. Plato enhanced his visions from within and implemented…

Anti-Colonialism
Montaigne: The Embodiment of Identity as Grounds for Toleration

A crucial issue between many identity groups is conflict. Toleration by definition is basically the rejection of a belief or practice, which is followed by restraint of one's self from suppressing that belief. Those seeking to make social and political aspects of toleration among people from different backgrounds need to delve more deeply into the idea of toleration; what it means and what it is based on. In the 16th century, the aim was to establish conditions of harmonious living for people who held different beliefs. Thus, the most crucial issue among politicians and other thinkers was the conflict between identity groups that begun in the 1970s and brought about a quick end to the spread of communism. The idea of tolerance provides a basis for thinking differently about how to react to the said conflict. The rejection of a…

Ethics
The nineteenth century German philosopher Immanuel Kant presented an ethical code that assigned a strict "right" or "wrong" to every action. Called the categorical imperative, Kant believed that it does not matter what the consequences or outcome of actions are; there are certain things that are right and certain things that are wrong. These ethical categories of right and wrong are not negotiable. It can never be "sometimes" ok to tell a white lie, or to steal. Instead, Kant created easy to understand categories that apply theoretically to all cultures and all people at all times. Human beings are always morally obliged to do the right thing in any given situation, even if doing so leads to suffering. Therefore, it would be considered right to tell the truth to a murderer and subsequently die rather than to lie to the murderer and survive. Davis (n.d.). uses the example of…

" (ohlf) These maxims may be as simple as gratifying a desire or something complex like becoming a lawyer. Kant then distinguishes between two basic kinds of maxims: material and formal principles. If I am acting in order to satisfy some desire, such as going to a Starbucks to get a coffee, that is acting on a material principle. According to Kant, maxims are rules that describe how one does act and imperatives prescribe how one should act. A categorical imperative commands that I should act in some way unconditionally. Kant regards these categorical imperatives as moral laws and they apply to everyone in the same way. In other words, if stealing is morally wrong, we cannot say that stealing is okay., because we are hungry and lack the money to buy food for ourselves or our families.
Part II

Kant's Categorical Imperative commands that we should act in some…

In this case, according to the utilitarian approach, Janet would probably choose to not accept the position with Karen's employer.
The reason she would not would be because even though it would benefit her immensely it would not provide the greatest benefits and the least harm to the most amount of individuals, in fact the exact opposite would be true.

If, however, Janet were to approach this same scenario from the Kantian point-of-view, she might choose to accept the position with Karen's company, even though it would not provide the greatest benefits for the most people. Immanuel Kant, in the 18th century espoused a philosophy that said that an individual's right to choose for himself was one of the most basic rights of mankind. Kant said that what separated humans from animals was that humans have a dignity based on their individual right and ability to choose freely what they…

My Attitude and Perspectives towards War My attitudes on dealing with the upcoming worldly events and war change especially with the reports and research conducted on the issue of democracy. The antecedents towards war attitudes may include national identification and authoritarian ideological beliefs, and the consequences of war would include the intention to engage in pro-war behaviors. The different approaches to the major issues have given rise to arguments that incline people into believing that war is not the ultimate solution. Attitudes to war would be positively related to nonegalitarian ideologies and beliefs but less of personal distress. I support Kant’s notion of ‘Perpetual Peace’ where democratic peace comes into play. Countries that have democratic constitutions have shown the importance of getting the consent of their citizens when waging war with their enemies. Therefore, this makes citizens a determinant factor, and if they decide to engage in war, then they…

Sleepers in the Context Of Kant's Moral Philosophy
Barry Levinson's 1996 motion picture Sleepers provides viewers with a shocking (and intriguing at the same time) account involving a group of boys who perform a horrible crime as a result of wanting to prank someone and end up in a juvenile center where they are subjected to a series of brutal abuses. The scene when the boys accidentally kill a person as they want to prank the hot dog vendor is especially interesting. Looking at matters from a perspective involving Kant's moral philosophy, it would seem that it is wrong to judge the boys solely based on how they murder an innocent human being.

When considering Kant's moral philosophy, it seems that the boys have a complex understanding of the situation they are in and of the role they need to play in this respective situation. Kant's Categorical Imperative theory perfectly…

Kant's Critique Of Practical Reason And Other Writing On The Theory Of Ethics
Kant's article on practical reason on the theory of ethics draws heavily from deontological ethics. To make the term understandable from the layman's point-of-view, deontological ethics is simply the study of moral obligation. This implies duties that a person must perform in the course of his relationship with others or to put it simply, duties that an individual is expected to perform if he is to lead a quiet and peaceful existence. This implies duties a person must exercise for himself, towards his fellowmen, towards country, towards God. asic to this article is the supreme principle of morality which underlie the reason for all rules of ethics and the concomitant duties that an individual must perform.

Taken broadly, duties are actions that are mandatory - in other words required and must perforce be done. Some philosophers through…

Then present one argument that demonstrates a strength or a weakness.

The strength of Kant's critique of reason and its excesses can be seen in an examination of Plato's famous Theory of Ideas. For Plato, the only suitable instrument for knowledge of the real world is reason and understanding. He defines understanding as the highest activity of the soul and reason as the second-highest activity of the soul. (Republic, 511c) These activities are necessary to glimpse the things of the real word, the actual Forms contained in the world of Forms. (Republic, 509d). For Plato, true Knowledge was the Knowledge of these real things. (Republic, 509e). For him, all Knowledge was Knowledge of something that exists because what does not exist is nothing, of which it is impossible to have Knowledge. (Republic, 477e)

Through the proposition that knowledge and opinion are different capacities, Plato infers that knowledge and opinion must…

political motive should be allowed to exercise within the context of morality otherwise the strongest will flourish at the expense of the weakest. The accommodation of morality within political decision-making is the essence of the central argument presented by Immanuel Kant in his work, "Perpetual Peace." This paper begins by summarizing Kant's "Perpetual Peace" and goes on to identify the realist and liberal aspects of his work. The paper ends by discussing the compatibility of Kant's ideas with classical realism.
KANT: PEPETUAL PEACE

INTENATIONAL ELATIONS

The current international political environment is tilting towards a New World Order. This is due to the visible tension that is a product of interaction between the major world powers along with their national interests and the lesser world powers. This tension stems primarily from the desire to maintain power and protect one's own national interests at the expense of others. Several philosophers have suggested…

Philosophy: Moll Flanders
Moll Flanders: Money, Sexuality and Philosophical Views of Issues aised

What are the lessons to be learned from the novel Moll Flanders -- the lessons in terms of historical relevance, social values, personal values and goals, and of the need for a survivable, solid income for each individual? How is philosophy tied into those lessons? And what do philosophers Immanuel Kant and Carole Pateman contribute to the overall understanding of what is presented in the novel? What

This paper proposes to offer insights on -- and germane examples of -- human behavior patterns and the philosophical view of how to interpret those behaviors. This paper will not moralize, or take strong positions on one side or another; on the contrary, the materials presented will attempt to first digest and then represent what the novel and the philosophers' views have to offer the reader.

After all, a novel…

Free ill" Exist and if so, to hat Extent does it Exist?
The concept of "Free ill" has been debated by many philosophers over a period of centuries, not only regarding its very existence but also regarding its elements, the extent to which it may or may not exist and its moral implications. Our assigned readings have merely touched on debates that have raged and will probably continue to rage as long as human beings contemplate the "truths" about being. Though an exhaustive review of differing philosophical treatments of "Free ill" would probably take hundreds of pages, this work will briefly examine several major philosophies of "Free ill" and some of their most notable proponents. In reviewing these sources and differing approaches to "Free ill," we can see that philosophers approach the concept of "Free ill" with differing definitions, examining disparate aspects and resulting in somewhat different implications for Morality.…

Scandal in Philosophy
In Soccio's account of Immanuel Kant's philosophy, Immanuel Kant saw as a "Scandal in Philosophy" the basic disjunction between western philosophical schools, such that indicated both sides were in part mistaken about their premises. There are several important mediating figures here, whom we must understand first if we wish to understand Kant's own identification of this problem, his "Scandal in Philosophy," and Kant's means of correcting it. For this reason, an account of Kant requires a long foregrounding, because to a certain degree the "Scandal" Kant identified had been brewing for well over a century, and it involved four major predecessors: Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. We must summarize them before approaching Kant's critique of them.

We need to cast back first to Descartes in the seventeenth century, and recollect the phenomenon of Cartesian Dualism, which posits that mind is a mysterious substance that is not to…

Conceptions of an Enduring Issue
elationship between Body and Mind/Soul - Aristotle and Descartes

Aristotle modeled hylomorphism as a fusion of form and matter or soul and body as two elements of one solid being. Aristotle viewed the body's form to be the soul and the soul's matter to be the body. Descartes' dualism separates matter and mind (also soul) and recognizes that the two constitute a person. The two philosophies both subscribed to the view that the mind or soul was located centrally in a person. Aristotle believed that the soul resided in the heart while Descartes believed that the mind was located in the brain. The mind and soul were seen to be interacting with the rest of the body, albeit not clearly in Descartes' case. Aristotle's theory advanced a deep connection between the two and it is probable that he considered the faculty of the soul called…

The question arising from this claim is whether evidence exists to prove that there exists an infinitely good, powerful, and wise God where morality naturally emerges. Humes argues that is hard to imagine that an all-good, powerful God exists in this world full of pain and misery. From these claims, one can argue that this insight, or God, has both evil and good, as is present in man if man is in God's image and likeliness.
Immanuel Kant: from the Critique of Pure Reason, the Good Will and the Categorical Imperative, the Postulates of Practical Reason

Kant believes that the vigorous application of same methods of reasoning can yield to an equal development in dealing with the issues of moral philosophy. Kant proposes a list of categories of Freedom in Relation to the concept of good vs. evil. Kant uses logical distinction as the basis for the catalog. Even though…

He has already placed himself under a cloud of suspicion by the community, and while he still possess the same essential rights, he cannot be regarded deserving of the same attention as the boy. Cappa's rights must be respected to the fullest because he, in so far as anyone knows, has always respected the rights of others. Smoot has not. The temporary abridgment of Smoot's rights in order to ensure the Natural Rights of Mickey Cappa would seem to be in accord with an ideal of happiness for all. In this kind of situation, the existence of a predator or abductor in the community represents a threat to everyone's natural rights. It is a threat that should be removed. If indeed, Sylvester Smoot is innocent, his interrogation can be viewed as means both of making sure that Mickey Cappa's rights were protected, as well as away of showing to the…

The direct harm the other individual ultimately determines the rightness or wrongness of the individual's actions and decisions.
Applied in the Schiavo case, deontology then considers the decision to deprive Schiavo of the feeding tubes that sustains her life as not a permissible act. It is true that with Schiavo's death, both her husband and family will not be aggrieved or directly harmed with her death; instead, both parties will feel relief with the eventual decision to 'end' Schiavo's physical suffering. Her death will not cause any detriment to the lives of her husband and family, making Schiavo's death ethical, to the extent that it relieved Schiavo from the physical suffering she experiences, and her family from worrying about her condition and the continuous financial burden they experienced as a result of her prolonged hospitalization. However, despite these arguments, the decision to discontinue her life support was made by her…

Inalienable ights
Although America's founding documents declared unequivocally "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable ights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," the signing of the Declaration of Independence did nothing more to end the debate over rights, power, and liberty than did the discourses of Immanuel Kant, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke. The notion of inalienable rights is rooted in Hobbesian theory, after Hobbes wrote in his Leviathan that "to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own Nature; that is to say, of his own Life; and consequently, of doing anything, which in his own judgment, and eason, he shall conceive to be the (most) apt means thereunto," thus offering philosophy's most basic elucidation of the concept of inalienable rights. Western philosophy has always focused the attention of…

This object, though, sets in human consciousness in many divergent ways -- perception, memory, retention, etc. Depending on the manner in which the idea is intentional, the object may be identical but interpreted different and thus a divergent sense of reality for individuals. Opposite of Descartes and Kant, there is no one finite way of describing this object and it is entirely dependent upon the method of reduction and interpretation in which we find meaning. hen we reference a thing, this object, then, we are closer to representing a Platonian version of forms or ideas in that thing -- the thing's essence or idea. Some say that when we describe an identical thing as what we really "see" or measure, it does not mean that this is the entirety of the thing. The ultimate goal of phenomenology, then, is to understand how these different aspects are merged into the actual…