The Volkswagen, a symbol of style and sophistication on the road, but unfortunately beginning in 2006, this vehicle was also one of the most masterful cons ever to grace the road. According to the report from the United States Department of Justice, in 2006 Liang and his coworkers “started to design a new ‘EA 189’ diesel engine.” (U.S. Department of Justice, 2016) When they realized that this engine would not meet strict emission standards, Liang and his team intentionally “designed and implemented software to recognize whether a vehicle was undergoing standard U.S. emissions testing on a dynamometer or being driven on the road under normal conditions (the defeat device), in order to cheat the emissions test.” (U.S. Department of Justice, 2016)
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In order to successfully evaluate the facts of the case, a moral theory must be defined. Duty theory was developed by Kant as a means to determine the morality of acts committed by all rational beings. The major statement behind Kant’s theory is that an act is right if and only if it is put into fruition with good intentions; intentions are the key concept in his argument. Kant believed that ethics is about categorical imperatives or statements that stand on their own and need no clarification. An example of a categorical imperative would be “do not lie.” Another important concept in Kant’s theory is that of the will. According to Kant, the will is what animates the body and duty is what one ought to do. A will is good when it commits a moral act that is aligned with …show more content…
However, one could also argue that in lying to the California Air Resources Board and the customers, they were violating the dignity of the customer and using them as a means to sell their car no matter what the cost. The fact that the car also showed degradation in utility because of the implementation of this deception software shows that Liang put humanity in unnecessary danger. This act was not considering, as Kant calls it, the “universal kingdom of ends” and so again using duty ethics the acts of cheating a test, lying to a board of safety professionals and manipulating the trust of the public would deem Liang’s actions as
In order to successfully evaluate the facts of the case, a moral theory must be defined. Duty theory was developed by Kant as a means to determine the morality of acts committed by all rational beings. The major statement behind Kant’s theory is that an act is right if and only if it is put into fruition with good intentions; intentions are the key concept in his argument. Kant believed that ethics is about categorical imperatives or statements that stand on their own and need no clarification. An example of a categorical imperative would be “do not lie.” Another important concept in Kant’s theory is that of the will. According to Kant, the will is what animates the body and duty is what one ought to do. A will is good when it commits a moral act that is aligned with …show more content…
However, one could also argue that in lying to the California Air Resources Board and the customers, they were violating the dignity of the customer and using them as a means to sell their car no matter what the cost. The fact that the car also showed degradation in utility because of the implementation of this deception software shows that Liang put humanity in unnecessary danger. This act was not considering, as Kant calls it, the “universal kingdom of ends” and so again using duty ethics the acts of cheating a test, lying to a board of safety professionals and manipulating the trust of the public would deem Liang’s actions as