Kant Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Kant - Essay Example In addition, these laws are not only made by these beings, but these beings are also subject to the laws, which have been made. Every rational or human nature is based on the autonomy of the beings, which is practiced by them. The categorical imperative is at the center of the philosophical concept as espoused in the moral philosophy of Kant and it may be used as a way of determining the motivations that bring about the actions of human beings. Kant's view is that all human beings occupy an unusual place in the creation, and this makes them immensely rational creatures that were given the ultimate commandment of reason. Therefore, it is from this command of reason that all the duties and obligations that are observed by rational creatures are derived (McKinnon 844). Moreover, Kant defined an imperative as any suggestion that stated a certain activity or inactivity taken by a rational being to be necessary. A categorical imperative shows an implicit requirement, which is independent; that it affirms its authority in all situations that are required and justified as ends in themselves. In addition, Kant in his work expressed the extreme dissatisfaction he felt with the moral philosophy that was extremely popular in his time believing that this philosophy would never be able to surpass the level of hypothetical imperatives. A utilitarian in Kant's time would have said that the murder was wrong because of the fact that it did not make best use of the good in those people who were involved but that this was inappropriate for those people who were anxious with the maximization of the optimistic outcomes, which would come for themselves. Because of this, Kant argued that the morals systems that were based on the hypothetical could not persuade moral actions, or be regarded as the basis of moral arguments against others, this is because their imperatives were largely based on the subjective. Therefore, as an alternative Kant conferred an option in a moralistic system t hat was based on the categorical imperative (O'Hagan 525). Kant like the utilitarians based his moral theory on the intrinsic value but this is the only similarities between these moral values. This is where utilitarianism takes happiness to be conceived as pleasure and the absence of pain to be an intrinsic value, moreover, Kant states that one's thinking that they have moral worth for its own sake is enough to be considered one’s good will. In addition, he conceives people to be autonomous moral agents who have moral worth that is intrinsic and it is this, more than anything that makes them deserve moral respect. This hypothesis of Kant is sometimes thought of as the respect of person’s theory of morality (Mina 24). According to Kant, some objections to the moral theory have been there because of the fact that it is not always in the best interests of somebody to tell the truth. Sometimes, the truth is not always, what is needed and instead it can be extremely detrim ental to a person or those who are around him. For example, it would not be a person's best interests to tell a killer where his best friend is if this killer intends to kill his friend. Instead, this person has to lie to the killer to ensure that the life of his best friend is saved and in the process, the moral theory as stated by Kant ceases to function. Kant's moral theory is exceedingly limited to the telling of the truth, and it does not include those circumstances when the truth may not necessarily be a marvelous thing in the end. Still, the belief that one is