You are not currently logged in. Please create an account or log in to view the full course.
Kant, the Good Will, and Acting From Duty
- About
- Transcript
- Cite
Kantian Deontological Ethics
In this course, Dr Iain Law (University of Birmingham) thinks about Kantian deontological ethics, one of the three main normative ethical theories alongside utilitarianism and virtue ethics. We begin in the first module by introducing the concept of a moral theory and outlining what distinguishes deontological theories from other kinds of moral theories, before introducing the deontological theory of Immanuel Kant more specifically. After that, we consider Kant's distinction between acting from duty and acting (merely) in accordance with duty. In the third module, we think about the difference between hypothetical and categorical imperatives, before turning in the fourth and fifth modules to *the* Categorical Imperative, as Kant described it. In the fourth module, we focus on the first formulation of the Categorial Imperative (sometimes known as the Formula of Universality) and in the fifth, we focus on the second formulation (sometimes known as the Formula of Humanity). Finally, in the sixth module, we think about some potential objections to Kantianism, including the limitations of the Formula of Universality, clashes of duties, and its lack of interest in what might ordinarily be considered important motives, e.g. compassion, empathy.
Kant, the Good Will, and Acting From Duty
In this module, we introduce the concept of a moral theory and think about what distinguishes deontological moral theories from other kinds of moral theories (e.g. virtue ethics, utilitarianism). After that, we introduce the deontological theory of Immanuel Kant, focusing in particular on his conception of the will and his distinction between acting from duty and acting in accordance with duty (i.e. doing the right thing, but not for the right reasons).
Hello.
00:00:03My name's Iain Law.
00:00:03I'm a senior lecturer in philosophy at the University
00:00:04of Birmingham.
00:00:07And this is going to be a series of videos
00:00:08about Kantian deontological ethics.
00:00:09So before we get to Kantianism, we
00:00:12need to talk a little bit about what deontological ethics is.
00:00:14And to do that, we need to understand what kind of thing
00:00:18a moral theory is.
00:00:20So a moral theory is an attempt to categorize actions into what
00:00:22we call deontic statuses.
00:00:26You could think of these as moral categories.
00:00:28So think of an action you could perform.
00:00:31You could pause this video and go and make a cup of tea.
00:00:35You would probably think of that act
00:00:37as being neither morally right nor morally wrong.
00:00:39It's permissible.
00:00:43But suppose suddenly you were called upon to go and help
00:00:45a friend in extreme need.
00:00:48You might think that it was your moral duty to do that.
00:00:50So that would get the deontic status of obligatory.
00:00:53It would be in the category of right actions.
00:00:57Suppose you took it into your head
00:01:00you attempted to do something pretty awful.
00:01:02And then your conscience kicked in
00:01:06and told you that that was the wrong thing to do.
00:01:08That would be you assigning it the deontic status
00:01:11of impermissible.
00:01:13It would be in the moral category
00:01:15of things that are wrong to do.
00:01:16So moral theories are ways of telling us
00:01:19which of these deontic statuses possible actions can have.
00:01:23So any theory which tries to do that-- which says,
00:01:28give me some candidate actions, and I'll tell you which deontic
00:01:32status they have--
00:01:35we could call a deontic moral theory.
00:01:36That's because it's trying to assign these deontic statuses
00:01:39to things.
00:01:43It's trying to sort actions into these categories.
00:01:44But there's a distinction between a deontic theory
00:01:48and a deontological moral theory.
00:01:51This can be hard to remember, because these
00:01:53are unusual terms.
00:01:55And they're terms that we don't use outside
00:01:57of academic moral philosophy.
00:01:58But if you're at all familiar with utilitarianism,
00:02:02you'll remember that utilitarianism sorts actions
00:02:05into categories like obligatory and impermissible.
00:02:08So utilitarianism could be thought
00:02:13of as a deontic moral theory.
00:02:15It's a moral theory which assigns deontic statuses
00:02:17to potential actions.
00:02:19But it's not a deontological moral theory.
00:02:21Deontological moral theories are, roughly,
00:02:26those which take a non-consequentialist approach
00:02:29to assigning actions to deontic statuses.
00:02:32So consequentialism, as you'll know
00:02:36if you'll have seen the first video in my series
00:02:38on utilitarianism, is the theory that
00:02:41says the consequences of your actions
00:02:43are what matter to determining their moral status,
00:02:46their deontic status.
00:02:49But if you think that there are certain things which
00:02:51are right or wrong, not because of their actions,
00:02:53but just because of the kind of action that they are,
00:02:57that might be a deontological approach.
00:03:00So suppose you think the reason why you shouldn't lie or cheat
00:03:03or murder or assault or steal isn't
00:03:09just that the consequences of doing so are bad,
00:03:13but because of the nature of the act in some sense,
00:03:16or the fact that there's a moral rule forbidding such things,
00:03:19that would be a deontological theory.
00:03:22The most influential deontological theory,
00:03:26at least in academic ethics in the English-speaking world,
00:03:30is Kantian ethics.
00:03:34But it's important to note that deontological theories aren't
00:03:36just Kantian theories.
00:03:39There are non-Kantian forms of deontological moral theory.
00:03:41So some examples include divine command theory,
00:03:46which says that the moral rules are given by God,
00:03:49and the right thing to do is whatever
00:03:51God commands you to do.
00:03:53There is natural law theory, which
00:03:55says that, somehow, studying nature and natural functions
00:03:57can tell us what the moral rules are.
00:04:02And then there are theories like those
00:04:05of WD Ross, who came up with a theory
00:04:07of pluralistic moral principles, moral duties, which give way
00:04:10to each other in one way in one situation and a different way
00:04:16in a different situation.
00:04:19So even if you don't find Kantian deontological ethics
00:04:21all that attractive, you shouldn't
00:04:25assume that you therefore must be a utilitarian.
00:04:26These are not the only moral theories on offer.
00:04:30So what's distinctive about Kantian deontological ethics?
00:04:34Well, it's named after a particular person, Immanuel
00:04:38Kant.
00:04:41So Kant was a philosopher who made contributions
00:04:42in a range of sub-disciplines within philosophy.
00:04:44He lived mostly in the 18th century
00:04:47in what was then East Prussia, in the town of Konigsberg.
00:04:49His approach to ethics is a very starkly
00:04:54non-consequentialist approach.
00:04:58So Kant thinks that we can arrive at rules
00:05:01governing our conduct--
00:05:05moral rules-- just by working out
00:05:06what he calls pure practical reason,
00:05:09not by thinking directly about the consequences
00:05:11of our actions.
00:05:14His most famous work of moral philosophy
00:05:16is called the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals.
00:05:18And it's intended, actually, just
00:05:21to be the first part of his complete project.
00:05:22The word groundwork is not an accident.
00:05:27He went on and wrote a book called
00:05:29the Critique of Practical Judgment, which was about how
00:05:31we make moral judgments.
00:05:34And then he wrote The Metaphysics of Morals
00:05:36itself, not the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals,
00:05:38but the thing itself.
00:05:41Nevertheless, the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
00:05:42is what most people pay most attention to.
00:05:45And he begins the Groundwork by making the claim
00:05:49that the only thing that is good in itself is a good will.
00:05:51So other things may be good.
00:05:56But they're not good unconditionally.
00:05:58And Kant treats this as meaning that they're not
00:06:01good in themselves.
00:06:03So for example, he considers the claim that happiness is good.
00:06:06And he says, well, happiness is good.
00:06:09But it's not good if the scoundrel
00:06:12becomes happy as a result of screwing other people over.
00:06:14That happiness isn't good.
00:06:17So happiness is only conditionally good.
00:06:19But if we think of a good will, he says,
00:06:22we will see that there are no conditions on its goodness.
00:06:26A good will must be good.
00:06:28To understand why this is, we need
00:06:31to understand what kind of thing a will is.
00:06:32So the will is a faculty of the mind.
00:06:36You might think it's similar to desire.
00:06:39So you can want a certain outcome.
00:06:41You can will a certain outcome.
00:06:43Kant sees these as rather different.
00:06:46So wanting something could be a kind of idly wishing
00:06:49that it were so.
00:06:53But willing that a certain outcome come about
00:06:55is actually taking steps to bring that about.
00:06:58Something can only be said to be your will,
00:07:02as opposed to merely your desire,
00:07:04if you are really trying to move towards it and bring it about.
00:07:06So suppose I said to you that my will was to win the lottery,
00:07:11but that I hadn't bought a ticket.
00:07:16There would be something contradictory about that.
00:07:18Kant says that if you will the end,
00:07:21you necessarily will the means.
00:07:24What this means is, if you have something as a goal,
00:07:27and there is something which is indispensable towards achieving
00:07:31that goal, you can only be said to truly will that this goal
00:07:34be achieved if you're prepared to take
00:07:39these indispensable means to it.
00:07:41And this is going to be important later on.
00:07:43So roughly speaking, your will is your faculty
00:07:47of putting plans into action.
00:07:49It's your faculty of not just experiencing desire, but moving
00:07:52towards what it is that you want.
00:07:56And Kant thinks this faculty--
00:08:00if you are a good person, and if this faculty
00:08:02is directed towards doing good things and acting morally--
00:08:06that is good in itself.
00:08:11Even if something goes wrong, and your actions
00:08:13don't have the intended effect, nevertheless, your will
00:08:16was good.
00:08:19And there is no set of circumstances in which we can
00:08:21say that it failed to be good.
00:08:24So the good will is good in itself.
00:08:26But what is it that you will if your will is good?
00:08:29Kant's answer is that you have a good will when
00:08:34what it is that you try to do is the right thing.
00:08:37Furthermore, he thinks what it is
00:08:41that you try to do must be done because it is the right thing.
00:08:44And here we get to his distinction
00:08:48between acting from duty and acting merely
00:08:50in accordance with duty.
00:08:54Here's an example of acting merely in accordance with duty.
00:08:57Let's suppose it's my duty to see students
00:09:01who have difficulties, respond to their questions, and so on.
00:09:05And let's suppose that I do this.
00:09:10This means we know that I am acting in accordance with duty.
00:09:12My deeds are the ones that duty requires of me.
00:09:16But let's say I'm doing this for entirely selfish reasons.
00:09:20Maybe my boss has said to me, "Iain,
00:09:24if we get good reports about you being there in your office
00:09:26and helping students with questions,
00:09:30we'll give you a promotion, or we'll give you more money,
00:09:32or we won't fire you," or something like that.
00:09:34So what I'm doing is in accordance with duty.
00:09:38But I'm not doing it because it's my duty.
00:09:41I'm not actually moved by the thought,
00:09:44this is what I ought to do for moral reasons.
00:09:47Instead, I'm moved by the thought,
00:09:50this will be beneficial to me.
00:09:52Contrast this with my friend, who
00:09:55does the right thing by her students
00:09:58because it's the right thing to do.
00:10:01And when someone says to her, "Why do you
00:10:04devote so much time to helping your students?", she says,
00:10:05"Well, of course, I have to.
00:10:09Of course, I must.
00:10:11It's what I ought to do."
00:10:12She's acting from duty.
00:10:15She's doing the right thing because it's the right thing.
00:10:17But I'm just acting in accordance with duty.
00:10:20And according to Kant, this means that my action
00:10:23has no moral worth.
00:10:26Only actions which are done from duty have moral worth.
00:10:29This is a claim which has some surprising implications, which
00:10:35I'll talk about in the next video.
00:10:38
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Law, I. (2019, January 09). Kantian Deontological Ethics - Kant, the Good Will, and Acting From Duty [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/kantian-deontological-ethics/the-first-formulation-of-the-categorical-imperative
MLA style
Law, I. "Kantian Deontological Ethics – Kant, the Good Will, and Acting From Duty." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 09 Jan 2019, https://massolit.io/courses/kantian-deontological-ethics/the-first-formulation-of-the-categorical-imperative