For this assignment I must take Kant’s Moral Theory and use it to view a proposed response to the scenario. In the given situation, I am living in a house with 8 others. We discover that because of our slim budgets, we aren’t able afford the continual rate of water usage. If we fail to pay the bill we will get evicted; in order to solve our predicament we have banded together to decrease our water consumption. The problem is: I enjoy taking long showers and watering my shrubbery. I reason that if I take them strategically I can do it without being noticed and the water level won’t go over if I’m the only one doing it. It’s also extremely unlikely that my continued water use would compromise the ability of our group to pay the bill. If, by chance,
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Kant’s theory differs from Utilitarianism in the fact that instead of judging a quandary on the resulting level of happiness, it finds the maxim of the choice and then assesses whether it can be successfully applied to the categorical imperative without contradicting itself. A maxim is the thought or principle that was used to lead you to do any action. Maxims all follow the same format: I will do A when I am in circumstance C in order to achieve my end E. According to Kant, the response to the situation that passes the formulas is the morally right …show more content…
The categorical imperative uses a pair of tests when evaluating a maxim; they are the formulas of universal law and humanity. Universal law takes a maxim and reformats it using everyone in place of the person. If the maxim can be applied to everyone’s actions without causing the overriding problem to occur, then it passes the first part. When you were younger you may have littered or snuck an extra cookie and had someone tell you if everyone took an extra cookie there wouldn’t be any left for others, the formula of universal law is basically that same statement being applied and evaluated to a maxim. The formula of humanity takes an action’s universalized maxim and analyzes it to see if after it is applied to everyone, it does not involve a person doing something against their will. The formulas go much deeper then what I have explained, but for this situation we do not need to delve that far into
Kant’s theory differs from Utilitarianism in the fact that instead of judging a quandary on the resulting level of happiness, it finds the maxim of the choice and then assesses whether it can be successfully applied to the categorical imperative without contradicting itself. A maxim is the thought or principle that was used to lead you to do any action. Maxims all follow the same format: I will do A when I am in circumstance C in order to achieve my end E. According to Kant, the response to the situation that passes the formulas is the morally right …show more content…
The categorical imperative uses a pair of tests when evaluating a maxim; they are the formulas of universal law and humanity. Universal law takes a maxim and reformats it using everyone in place of the person. If the maxim can be applied to everyone’s actions without causing the overriding problem to occur, then it passes the first part. When you were younger you may have littered or snuck an extra cookie and had someone tell you if everyone took an extra cookie there wouldn’t be any left for others, the formula of universal law is basically that same statement being applied and evaluated to a maxim. The formula of humanity takes an action’s universalized maxim and analyzes it to see if after it is applied to everyone, it does not involve a person doing something against their will. The formulas go much deeper then what I have explained, but for this situation we do not need to delve that far into