Immanuel Kant's Ethics Analysis

Immanuel Kant’s ethics is all about good will and following your duties. He believes that we need to have the right motives and if we do, then it is good. For example, we should be loyal to people, but if you are being loyal to an evil person, then that is not good. If you are being loyal to a good person, someone who has a goodwill then that is following your duty. Having a goodwill is unique in that the fact that is is always deemed moral and right, even if it fails to achieve its intentions. As long as you have good intentions in mind, that is what is important. In Kant’s ethics, the concept of goodwill is a more broad term for a will. A will is something that comes from your duty, and your duty is doing what you need to do to keep the moral law. Our acts that are done in correspondence with our duty are good and needed, but Kant says that the acts performed out of duty are the acts that have moral worth and are given a special esteem. Even though the acts done along with our duty are not thought of as highly, that does not make them less important. Since people are supposed to follow and fulfill their duties, we …show more content…
After all, it is not as though people would stop believing each other simply because it is known that people lie when doing so will save lives. For one thing, that situation rarely comes up—people could still be telling the truth almost all of the time. Even the taking of human life could be justified under certain circumstances. Take self-defense, for example. There appears to be nothing problematic with the rule “It is permissible to kill when doing so is the only available means of defense against an attacker”.