IMMANUEL KANT

Immanuel Kant, a popular Prussian philosopher, emphasized philosophical ideals of rationalism and empiricism. Born on April 22, 1724, Kant came from a deeply religious family. As he reached adulthood, Kant attended the University of Königsberg to study mathematics, physics, and philosophy. Kant never married due to his undivided devotion to academics. Kant is known for developing a type of deontological ethical theory, popularly referred to as Kantianism.

One of the most important principles of Kantianism is that morality is dependent on the action itself, not the result of the action. The way Kant measures the morality of actions is by checking if they pass three key tests. The first is Universalization, which means that the action can be made into a universal law that everyone must follow while still keeping society intact. For example, the action of stabbing is immoral because if everyone in the world stabbed each other everyone would be dead, meaning society falls. Another example is lying, where if everyone in the world lied then trust in society would fail, meaning lying is also immoral. The second test is Human Dignity, which means we should treat people as if they have an innate worth that cannot be gained or lost. This test entails that one cannot use another as a tool for their own gain. The final test is Moral Autonomy. Moral Autonomy means that decisions should come from one’s ability to reason, unaffected by any external pressures or emotion.

Some popular ideals Kant believed in were a priori reasoning, Good Will, and freedom. A priori reasoning refers to the idea that a human can have knowledge and the ability to reason regardless of what experiences they have. Essentially, it’s the understanding that any human has the ability to reason even if they have no experiences. Kant’s Good Will means that if one commits an action with good intent but the action leads to bad consequences, the action is inherently moral. Finally, Kant believed that in order to be moral, one needed to be in a state of freedom first. This belief was woven through his philosophy because he claims that in order to have moral reasoning, one must have autonomy, and without freedom one cannot make decisions on their own without external influence.

Finally, Kant rejected utilitarianism, mainly because he believed that utilitarianism advocated for using people as a means to an end. In a nutshell, utilitarianism means doing what is necessary to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Let’s look at an example. Say you traveled back in time to 1889, and you saw a baby Hitler, and you were given the opportunity to kill the baby or keep it alive. Utilitarianism would tell you to kill baby Hitler, as the end product is millions of lives saved. However, Kant would tell you not to kill the baby because a) we are using a human being to achieve a goal and b) killing someone is inherently wrong as per his three tests of morality.

In the end, Kant made some very valid points throughout his theory and provided great tests to test the morality of an action. However, contradicting theories like utilitarianism challenge the very principles that Kantianism stands upon, questioning the validity of Immanuel Kant’s philosophies.