Ethical Evaluation Of Kant's Theory

This paper will discuss an ethical evaluation using Kantian’s theory in a lying case stated below. What is Kantian’s theory? Kantian’s theory is an ethical theory that relies on the moral goodness of all people. “Kant argued that there is an unconditional good related to rationality, the moral law, and moral duty. The theory is centered on the duty to act based upon respect for the moral law or legitimate moral rules (104).” In other words, all individuals must uphold an unconditional good, to do this, one must be a rational person. A key factor relating to Kant’s theory, is that an individual may not interfere with another’s’ goals or objectives that a person may have. In addition, Kant discusses the moral rules that all autonomous and rational …show more content…
The idea of moral equality refers to all autonomous, rational beings or persons as moral equals. In other words, all moral equals are all equally tied together by the moral law. Therefore, individuals should act based upon respect for the moral law. This view of Kantian theory implies that all moral equals should treat individual’s as ends in themselves. As stated in the textbook “Persons are autonomous, rational beings who have goals or objectives that they wish to achieve. The goals or objectives are their ends. (109)” By interfering with one’s goals or objectives, it prevents that individual from achieving their legitimate ends. The theory identifies that deception and to simply use people, is unethical. This is clearly seen in the lying case with Maria. Maria assumes that Sue would tell her the truth, regardless if it might offend Maria. Maria expected Sue to treat her as a moral equal. In contrast, a weakness that Kantians theory has, is that it expects all people to behave rationally. “According to Kant, it is wrong for us, as rational beings, to act irrationally (109).” In order to act rational, an individual has to exclude themselves from their emotions. Humans are emotional beings, we tend to rely on feelings rather than intellect. “This view of people as beings who must reject the emotional aspect of their nature is a weakness for some philosophers. People are to a large degree emotional beings and, therefore, a theory that forces them to deny this part of their nature seems misguided and unrealistic (122).” Again, this is illustrated in the lying case stated above. When Sue intentionally lied to Maria to avoid hurting Marias feelings, Sue was acting on her emotions. Sue did not want to hurt Maria’s feelings, therefore, Sue believed that it would be okay to tell a small lie. Kantian’s theory makes a valid point about how deceiving people is unethical. However, Kantians theory