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Kant's philosophy on justice and fairness
Comparing and contrasting virtue, ethics, utilitarianism
Immanuel kant rights theory
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Are you exhausted with the big I little you? No ifs, ands, or buts, about it “United we stand divided we fall.” cease the conflicts over personal views of principle of relevance. From Homeric perspective, if we do not reward the virtuous and allow others to evade their just deserts for whatever inappropriate actions that they may take, have we then failed in our mission regardless of the value of our intentions? Louis Pojman, “affirmed that we should endeavor to create a world in which, the virtuous are rewarded and the vicious be punished in proportion to their relative deserts.” Like me, most of us would agree with an affirmative such as this.
First, Pojman argues that we should strive to form a world in which “the virtuous are rewarded and the vicious be punished in proportion to their relative deserts,” In rationality I believe that the virtuous will be eternally rewarded and the vicious will be inevitable punished. Pojman wants us to realize that those who work methodically should get what they deserve. Many times people who work diligently to achieve goals endure moderate to no success. In oppose to those who inherit success and possessions, they waste, ruin and make catastrophe out of deserve because they didn’t earn it; therefore, they do not know how to appreciate the value of it.
Merit and desert are two essential principles of ethics. The use of these essential principles has much to do with the workings of our society as well as the good of humanity. I will explore why we value merit and why we should acknowledge the necessity of desert throughout the stages of life. I agree that the virtuous should be rewarded and malicious punished, but it is easier said than done. Today many are oppose to the ethnocentris...
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...f a life,” not a rational lawmaker. (Waller B. N. p.140)
Indeed, utilitarian’s are opposed to Kantian. They deem in maximizing utility over the principle of equal rights for all citizens, many would agree that everyone is entitle to equal human rights regardless of their state of affairs, for this reason the virtuous will be eternally rewarded and the vicious will be inevitable punished. Pojman argues that we should strive to form a world in which "the virtuous are rewarded and the vicious be punished in proportion to their relative deserts," In prudence those who support that senses or moral truth are more than the natural world but more of a divine power would doubtless agree that the virtuous will be eternally rewarded and the vicious will be inevitable punished.
References
Waller, B (2008). Consider Ethics (2nd Ed) New York: Pearson Longman
Cahn, Steven M. and Peter Markie, Ethics: History, Theory and Contemporary Issues. 4th Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
There are two basic kinds of ethical judgments. The first have to do with duty and obligation. For example: "Thou shalt not kill, lie, or steal." "You just keep your promises." These judgments often uphold minimal standards of onduct and (partly for that reason) assert or imply a moral ‘ought.’ The second kind of judgment focuses on human excellence and the nature of the good life. These judgments employ as their most general terms "happiness," "excellence," and perhaps "flourishing" (in addition to "the good life"). For example: "Happiness requires activity and not mere passive consumption." "The good life includes pleasure, friendship, intellectual development and physical health." I take these to be the two general types of ethical judgment, and all particular ethical judgments to be examples of these. The main contention of this paper is that we must carefully distinguish these two types of judgments, and not try to understand the one as a special case of the other.
Since we are made as free moral agents with the ability to choose the standards by which we will live some in society determine their right and wrong behavior based on their feelings of particular situations. For example, a person who grew up in a culture that is less fortunate than others and steals for survival might feel he hasn’t done anything wrong. However, this type of behavior is not acceptable in our society because it violates our obligation to be obedient to the law, not to mention the disadvantage of consequences one faces for their decisions. The advantage to displaying moral character by far out weights the consequences in that choosing to do right creates fairness by way of harmony. Of course, justice requires that victims are compensated for the wrong done to them, and anyone committs a crime must bear the ...
Inwardly examining his own nature, man would prefer to see himself as a virtuously courageous being designed in the image of a divine supernatural force. Not to say that the true nature of man is a complete beast, he does posses, like many other creatures admirable traits. As author Matt Ridley examines the nature of man in his work The Origins of Virtue, both the selfish and altruistic sides of man are explored. Upon making an honest and accurate assessment of his character, it seems evident that man is not such a creature divinely set apart from the trappings of selfishness and immorality. Rather than put man at either extreme it seems more accurate to describe man as a creature whose tendency is to look out for himself first, as a means of survival.
If accurate, this is a debilitating criticism of Kant’s moral theory as he had intended it. Mill’s critique instead classifies Kant’s moral theory as a type of rule utilitarianism. Any action under Kant’s theory is tested as a general rule for the public, and if the consequences are undesirable, then the general rule is rejected. “Undesirable consequences” are, according to the more precise language of Mill’s utilitarianism, consequences which are not a result of producing the greatest happiness. Mill’s analysis hinges on the lack of logical contradiction found in Kant’s theory. Without a concrete incongruity, Kant may be no more than a rule utilitarian. However, Mill is mistaken; the Categorical Imperative does produce absolute contradictions, as will be demonstrated through examples.
Also, since higher grain prices lead to starvation on a global scale, Utilitarians would support Kantians in that using much of the grain produced to feed animals is unethical. Moreover, Kantians do not believe that animals are self-conscious and are there only as a means to an end (humans). However, cruelty to animals leads to cruelty to humans so it is in our best interest to treat animals humanely. As a result, Kantians argue that humanity must stray away from the current method used to farm animals because taste alone is not a good enough reason to justify the way we treat them. On the other hand, Utilitarians argue that the way animals are treated lead to the greatest good for the greatest number of people because it generates the most resources to feed the world. However, because of its negative impact on the environment, and the indirect harm it causes to humanity (unethical), Utilitarians might argue that the method used to deal with animal waste is unethical (focusing on consequence and not the action). Kantians on the other hand, might argue the action of placing waste in a space specifically created for that purpose is ethical and does not have to be
Secondly, PoJman believed that the universe is full of goodness and because of that, good will conquer over evil. He said this because, through religion we learn that we as humans can willingly choose to be on God’s side. Therefore, by so doing, we can be sure that we will be able to beat evil .In other words,
Throughout human history, the way in which we define what is right and wrong has gone through many different transformations. The way we treat our fellow human beings has been altered by war, propaganda, racism and cultural differences. The division of land and power in the middle ages, the crusades, women’s suffrage and slavery are all derived from the ethics of particular cultures and perspectives. By looking at the ethics of previous eras and cultures, I hope to develop a particular ethical standpoint that is fair to all people of all cultures. For me, this is the standpoint that the end justifies the means, otherwise known as utilitarianism.
...nces. Kantianism focuses on the motivation of actions, has clear and distinct set of universal rules, and is morally logical. On the other hand, Utilitarianism relies on the consequences of an action, has no set universal laws as each action is assessed on an individual basis, and morality is based on the results of the assessment. Because of these reasons, I believe that Kantianism is the more ethically plausible theory of the two.
The ethical system that I propose has the goal of what is ultimately good for human beings. The ultimate good of human beings lie in going beyond their individual needs because instinctually animals strive to fulfill their individual bio-organic ne...
All human societies and communities have basic ethical principles that constitute certain moral codes. People formulated these principles and rules many centuries ago; they are fundamentals that structure human behavior and as such are included in all major religious and ethical systems. One of these basic rules is “do not steal”, something children are taught from their very early age. In our rapidly developing and dramatically changing contemporary world, ethical issues and problems are becoming ever more important and urgent. Maintaining basic ethical principles in a variety of settings and conditions requires more than accepting major moral values; it calls for courage, commitment, character, and strong and flexible reasoning and judgment. Ethical principles have been developed by different philosophical teachings and theories that analyze and structure worldview principles including, as one of their basic parts, ethical issues. In their everyday life, people often use words “good” or “bad” defining by them what they understand as ethical, or moral behavior or that which is immoral or unethical. They normally make no discrimination between ethics and morality, although the former “seems to pertain to the individual character of a person or persons, whereas morality seems to point to the relationships between human beings” (Thiroux Jacques P.20). The simple definitions of “good” and “bad”, however, turn out to be complicated and even controversial when we try to formulate consistently the principles that underpin them or define standards for judging and evaluating these norms.
We need a critique of moral values, the value of these values should itself, for once, be examined?. [What if] morality itself were to blame if man, as a species, never reached his highest potential power and splendour? [GM P 6]
First we will start with the historical example of the execution of Jesus. Pontius Pilate was put into a situation where a large crowd had attempted to persuade him that Jesus should be killed instead of a convicted murderer, even though Jesus had done nothing wrong. The majority won and he was killed. The Utilitarians can justify this action because the majority gained happiness from this. On the other hand, those who support Kant’s theory will argue that Jesus had done nothing wrong and his right were clearly violated making the action
Utilitarian’s judge the ethics of the situation based on the outcome. Kant believes that “good will has nothing to do with the outcome” (Garner PowerPoint). In the case of comparing these two views a simple example will be used: a lie to save a life.
Utilitarian ethics says that the moral worth of actions is determined by their consequences. In other words you actions are based off of the consequences you create and whether or not they are good or bad. However, it can be very hard to measure this. On the other hand Kantian ethics says people should be treated as ends and not as means to the ends for others. Meaning that all people need to have respect for others and treat them like humans. The final theory is justice theory that wants economic goods and services to have a just distribution. This means that everyone gets their fair share no matter what. However, these practices are often hard to implement, and are also difficult to see results.