Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill's Categorical Imperative

Superior Essays
Questions pertaining to whether certain actions are morally right or morally wrong are never easy to settle. There are various moral theories that try to address the question, divine command theory, virtue ethics, ethical egoism, cultural relativism, to name just a few. There is, of course, not much agreement among moral philosophers as to which is correct. There is, however, much agreement on what is actually morally right or morally wrong. The merits of a particular moral theory will depend (in part) on whether or not it can account for actions most of us consider to be right. This paper analyzes three different moral theories: Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative, John Stuart Mill’s utilitarianism, and Kwame Appiah’s cosmopolitanism. After a short description of each theory, the question of whether or not it is morally right to vaccinate children against bad diseases such as measles and mumps is asked of each of them.
Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative The distinction between two kinds of imperatives – those that provide instruction for attaining a specific goal and those that apply regardless of one's goal – is at the core of Kant's moral theory. The latter are called categorical imperatives, and they are to be followed at all
…show more content…
After all, most people would not like their children suffering from terrible diseases. But unless everyone is immune from a disease as contagious as measles, just one person contracting it can set off a chain reaction that leads to many others catching it. Being given a choice between a world in which everyone is immune against bad diseases such as measles and mumps as children – thus preventing them from ever contracting these terrible illnesses, and a world in which children are not vaccinated against such diseases – thus putting everyone in danger of contracting them, every person would choose the first

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    In accordance with Immanuel Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, I will argue that ethical actions should be judged by good will alone. By comparing the theories of Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill, I will conclude that Kant’s theories are more realistic in regards to the nature of humans. Immanuel Kant argues that one’s good intentions should be the deciding factor in judging their actions no matter the outcome. What is beneficial about this is that it allows for the expression of the intrinsic values of a person. Since every person has different virtues and opinions, they can act in any way they choose.…

    • 1510 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The issue of immunizing children is a notorious concern for parents who worry that vaccinations like MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) causes diseases like colitis or disorders like autism, yet vaccinations are deeply encouraged actions recommended by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and many health care providers. The April 2015 Sacramento Bee article Parents opposed to vaccinations haven’t seen children ravaged by diseases by Georgia Bihr tells the audience in paragraph 10 to “…choose the option that best protects not only our own child but also everyone’s children from the greatest harm” (Bihr, 2015, p. 2); this supports the controversy that accepting vaccines will give the best protections for a child’s health. Although vaccinations…

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    All around the world millions of parents have made the decision to leave their children without vaccinations: which protects them against some of the deadliest diseases that are so easily preventable. These vaccinations are not only safe and save millions of lives, they also prevent you from getting the disease and if enough people get vaccinated can eradicate the disease completely. With this huge advance in modern medicine why wouldn’t you get vaccinated? There are millions of potentially fatal diseases around the world that are incredibly dangerous, but so many of them could be avoided with a simple vaccination.…

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Kant's Moral Explanations

    • 2003 Words
    • 9 Pages

    a person’s standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do. This essay intends point out the relevant aspects of moral theologians, Kant, Mill, Aristotle and Held and to answer the question of the best suited approach in resolving ethical problems and dilemmas. Kant I have found that Kant’s theory is the most complicated and confusing of the four. It was only made somewhat clear by the explanation in O’Neill’s reading.…

    • 2003 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Morality as used in the context is defined as the principles revolving around the differentiation between wrong and right behavior of the human. As the last thinker of the enlightenment, Kant was a philosopher that believed that reason was the only thing that morality can come from. In contrast Mill was a philosopher who believed that morality is utility, meaning that something is moral only if it brings happiness or pleasure. In looking at both Kant ’s…

    • 1441 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the second chapter of his work Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, author Kant discusses the idea of an imperative as it relates to moral decision making, specifically how a person will decide the right course of action in any given situation. Kant defines imperative as a demand or command of reason action. When we have a goal in mind, the imperative is the reasonable course of action that we feel we must take. Kant then distinguishes between two types of imperatives. First, he discusses hypothetical imperatives.…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In the movie My Sister’s Keeper, Sara and Brian Breslin make the decision to conceive their daughter Ana through in vitro to donate compatible organs to their daughter Kate who suffers from acute promyelocytic leukemia. The ethical issue in this movie is the decision Ana’s parents made to go through with genetic pre-implementation with the specific goal of saving their older daughter Kate. The moral agent, Ana, faces moral obligations to save her sister by serving as an organ bank. She is at the center of an ethical dilemma as she has to decide what is best for her and her family.…

    • 1649 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Pros Of Mandatory Vaccination

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 7 Works Cited

    The risks of not vaccinating are detrimental to the unvaccinated child, but also every other child around him or her. Worldwide outbreaks are not worth it (Jolley and Douglas 2) The world should strive to eradicate diseases such as measles, mumps, and polio. Parents who choose not to vaccinate their children are only exposing them and others to a dangerous world full of harmful disease. It is most important to make sure that children throughout the world can stay safe (Parkins…

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 7 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    David Hume was one of the most influential philosophers of his time and continues to be mentioned and studies to this day. Almost equally as impressive was the response that philosopher Immanuel Kant had to his Inquiry of Human Understanding. Kant attempted to respond to Hume’s ideas and in this essay, I will identify the Hume’s beliefs behind the concepts such as cause, and effect and I will later defend Kant’s response to Hume. He raises points that leave his reader with a deeper understanding of his concept and explicitly outlines his beliefs on the concepts that Hume covers in his Human Inquiry.…

    • 1421 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mill Vs. Kant Essay

    • 1723 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Bill and Linda are happily married, however, for the past few months Bill has been carrying on an extramarital affair without Linda’s knowledge. If Linda were to find out about his affair, she would almost certainly be devastated and end their marriage. Bill is also almost certain that Linda would never find out about his affair unless he tells her himself. Considering this scenario, I will discuss how both Mill and Kant would advise Bill in this situation, based on their respective theories of Utilitarianism and the Formula of Universal Law. Further, I will support that Kant's advice to Bill is closer to being the right choice morally than that of Mill.…

    • 1723 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Kant believed that the moral worth of an action depends solely on the motive of the action and that the supreme principle of morality is the categorical imperative. Now, consider that a man named Jones is terminally ill with only a week to live and his last week will be full of pain and misery. However, Jones, his family, and his physicians all agree that a drug-induced, painless death would be preferable; Jones just has to determine if an induced death is morally permissible. In order to do this Jones’, his family and his physicians must test their action as a categorical imperative by using Kant’s Universal Law, Law of Nature, and Humanity Formulation.…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    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?”…

    • 1295 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Kant’s Categorical Imperative Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher remembered for his influence on ethics. Ethics is the philosophical study of moral actions. There are two particular ways of thinking regarding ethics: consequentialism and deontology. Consequentialism divides right and wrong entirely based on the consequences of an action - the end justifies the means. Deontology is the position arguing that consequences do not matter because moral judgement is based on the act alone, not the consequences.…

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    My Moral Philosophy

    • 1383 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Moral philosophy is the study of moral judgments or value placed on decision about what is right or wrong, good or bad, just or on just. Business philosophy is the standard, principle or policy placed on who may behave outside the norms of organizational culture, emphasis upon ethical behavior enables employees to know how they should react when faced with ethical dilemmas and the consequences of their actions. MY PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY. As an individual, I believe that keeping a low profile life is very vital to me in a sense that people around me irrespective of their cultural, ethnical and political background.…

    • 1383 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    David Hume and Immanuel Kant are both known for their great contributions to moral philosophy. Hume who is mainly known for his empiricism, skepticism and naturalism and Kant who is best recognized for his great work in metaphysics, ethics and also for his contributions in others disciplines in the area of philosophy. Although they were both exceptional philosophers and gave stupendous apports, Hume and Kant agreed nor differed in various aspect and ideas. Hume believed and is mostly based on his empiricism which involves the theory of the mind. Hume’s empiricism consist in to affirm that the moral foundation is not in the reason but in the senses.…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays