Kant Law And Order Analysis

Kant would resolve the conflict seen in Law and Order by adhering to the duty principle by testing a maxim of the conflict against his three formulations. These formulations are used to see if a rule is a categorical imperative – that is, a rule that is in tune with the moral law and is acted out of a pure will. Basically, these categorical imperatives are rules that are absolutely universal and unconditional. On the other hand, the impure will comes out of a hypothetical imperative. This is a rule that is conditional and mixes reason with desires and feelings and is concerned with the goods and ends of a decision. To find the side with the pure will that follows the categorical imperative, he would first determine what the maxim of the mother’s …show more content…
Based upon the third formulation, which is to treat people as ends and never merely as means, Kant would see a conflict. To explain, the mother did not want to vaccinate her child because she was afraid of the deadly side effects that could come with it. Yet, the opposition’s argument against the mother was that by not vaccinating her child, she was exposing unvaccinated babies to measles. Basically, the opposition was disregarding the mother’s own personal beliefs about her reasoning behind not vaccinating, and was basing their reasoning on the sad feelings that could come as a result of the situation. Because of this, the opposition was merely using the mother as a means and not as an end. In other words, the opposition neglected the mother’s motive behind not vaccinating her child and simply wanted her to vaccinate her child because it would stop the spread of measles in other children. Thus, the opposition was “using” the mother as a means to get her child vaccinated, rather than treating her as an end, by not considering the long-term side effects that the vaccination could bring. The conflict of this maxim, then, is that by saying that one should vaccinate his/her child, the people who do not want to vaccinate their children are being used as means or a resource to accomplish this