Kant's Ethics
In the Metaphysics of Ethics (1797) Kant described his ethical system, which is based on a belief that the reason is the final authority for morality. Actions of any sort, he believed, must be undertaken from a sense of duty dictated by reason, and no action performed for expediencyor solely in obedience to law or custom can be regarded as moral. Kant described two types of commands given by reason. The first was hypothetical imperative, which dictates a given course of action to reach a specific end, and the categorical imperative, which dictates a course of action that must be followed because of its rightness and necessity. The categorical imperative is the basis of morality and was stated by Kant as "Act as if the maxim of your action were to become through your will a general natural law." Kant's broke his rule based ethics down into two parts. The first being hypotheticalimperative reason. It is a method in which we try to attainan end such as happiness. The hypothetical imperative includes the ability to lie under certain circumstances when it is prudent.
perative also exerts heteronomy of the will, in that the will is following desire which is dictating to the will what to do. The categorical imperative requires the autonomy of the being must have a certain degree of high intelligence in order for what he reasons to be moral, correct, and veridical. To be a rational being requires not only the innate ability to be rational, introspective/hyper-conscious, andintuitive, but it requires a certain degree of intellectual and psychological intelligence that allows the individual to make use of the above qualities by being able to make connections and to relate. Many times humans follow the hypothetical imperative. This allows us as humans to lie under this method of reasoning when needed. Many times this leads into what Kant called the "slippery slope." Once you lie and bend the rule once it makes it OK to do it again. This forms a followed or applied. Kant says, any rule that does not apply for everyone can not follow this set of step method after bending one rule and then stepping down and bending another rule. Kant's philosophy is important even though
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Approximate Word count = 752
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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