John Mill Ethics Case Study

In this paper about ethical theories and cases I chose to discuss the positions of John Mill and Immanuel Kant, due to their dissimilar views on morality and ethical theories. From the four cases, I chose to apply the two philosopher’s theories to case number two. This case states the dilemma “My full-time (but not live-in) babysitter hinted that she would like to use my address to enroll her daughter in my excellent local public elementary school; her neighborhood school is awful. The alternative is for her to send her daughter to private school, a financial burden but not an impossibility. Should I offer my address?” So with that being said, I am going to start off by taking the position of John Mill, which consequences matter; not motives, …show more content…
Kant is a firm believer of duty based ethics, meaning that one’s morality is defined by ones motives. Thus, Kant believes that an action should be performed simply because it’s the right thing to do, and for no other reason. Also, Kant states that duty defines intrinsic value, meaning that a person’s motives for what they do should have ends within themselves, without consequences or desired satisfaction being built into their actions. Kant also states the one should act so that the maximum of your action can and should be made into universal law, expressing that the actions of your motives should apply to everyone in the same way. Thus, bringing us to the fact that action from duty has to be an categorical imperative, meaning that everyone should and would be able to act the same way, sharing equal positioning. Lastly, Kant presents A priori ideas, which in term is a special kind of idea that tells you about the possibility of human experience, however these experiences don’t depend on experience that you have already had, but are supplied by reason in order to make sense of an