Comparison Of Kantianism And Utilitarianism

Kantianism is the normative moral theory of ethics which was proposed by the 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Immanuel Kant lived at the height of the European enlightenment and he believed that reason is as important in moral philosophy as it is in epistemology. Kant’s ethics are deontological in nature, which means he follows the understanding that the moral worth of an action is derived from something intrinsic to the act itself. This contrasts to the consequentialist theory of Utilitarianism which follows the rule that any action, regardless of how unmoral it may seem, could be justified as long as it generates good consequences. This view proves a problem for Kantians as they believe the consequences of an action are often out with our control and it is very difficult to determine what they will be. Deontology is also known as ‘duty ethics’. This means that Kant believes that there will be certain actions that are always wrong such …show more content…
The rules of this act are that we must respect the lives of other beings as well as their wants and needs at all times. By stealing the object of value and saying that they were with you at the time, the friend is actually using more than one person as a means to an end. Firstly, the shop owner who is responsible for the goods was unaware that the friend stole the object which means that they did not have a chance to prevent the crime from taking place and therefore this stops the act of stealing the object from being morally permissible. Secondly, by saying that they were in your company during the time in which they were accused of stealing the object without running it by you first, they are also using you as a means to an end as you did not have a say in whether you wanted to be used as their alibi; you were just forced into the situation without compliance. Thus, this reason alone would make the act wrong on moral