Hypothetical imperative

Utilitarianism: Case One: According to Utilitarianism, the net good for all must be achieved. This includes both the quantity and the quality of the good. Moreover, there is a distinct difference between Egoism and Utilitarianism. In the first scenario, the consequences of the young man’s actions will only result in happiness for him. It is happiness of a great quality, however, it ignores the happiness of the 24 men, women, and children. Since the young man only pursues his own good, his…

In this essay, I hope to argue that contractarianism is a very demanding moral theory because only by submitting to stringent requirements will a contractarian bargainer be able to gain any of the benefits the social contract is capable of giving. As I talk about contractarian beliefs and how it holds up as a moral theory, I do only address Hobbesian contractarianism, as opposed to other types of contractarianism. After providing a brief summary of contractarianism, I seek to argue that rules a…

In this paper, I will discuss Kant’s moral reasoning, both broadly and in terms of a case study, and elaborate on some issues with Kantian ethics. The core of Kant’s ideas on morality is his statement that "nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good without qualification, except a good will". He defines this good will as “the will which acts from freedom and respect for the moral law”, meaning that one must choose by their own volition to pursue…

A Comparison of Medina and Nietzsche’s Philosophy The philosophies of Jose Medina and Friedrich Nietzsche differ in the sense that Medina focuses on the epistemic injustice while Nietzsche focuses on deconstructing morality. Medina explores injustice in society with the goal of finding factors that contribute to its existence. In essence, the philosopher believes morality to be a noble human virtue, and a factor that can be used to eliminate social injustices. However, due to social beliefs that…

“When you know how to use it, disobedience can be a virtue” (Coelho). This is what Wilde also similarly claims about disobedience being someone's virtue. Disobedience and virtue are known as two different things and are very opposite of each other, because of their meaning. But Wilde puts it into one category which determines disobedience as a good thing next to the list of goodness, righteous, honesty, kindness, and obedience. Since virtue already is determined as a high moral standard,…

However, both are flawed in my opinion. David Hume’s belief that morality is based on emotion and Kant on his belief that morality is based on the categorical imperative. I believe these two ideologies lie at both ends of the extreme. Nevertheless, given only the two arguments, I must say that morality must be determined more on reason that emotion. Therefore, I would have to side with Immanuel Kant. Nevertheless…

Kantian ethics, the moral philosophy established by Immanual Kant in his work Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, is centered around the idea of the “categorical imperative”, the principle that certain actions are strictly prohibited, despite the potential for the prohibited action to bring about more good than the alternative. Kant believed that since humans have the ability to reason, they must use their rationale to determine what these unwavering truths, or moral duties, are…

Since the beginning of time philosophers have concerned themselves with the question of morality: what is morally right or wrong? How are these moral truths known to be so? A well-known proposal to answer this moral dilemma is the notion of Utilitarianism as presented by John Stuart Mill, in Exploring Ethics. Utilitarianism attempts to solve all questions of morality by presenting criteria that must be met in every situation at all times for a decision to be the morally right thing to do.…

else to pursue. In this paper, we will focus on Kant’s concept of a free will, and the inferences he makes in order to prove his conclusion that free will is equivalent to following moral laws as long as the moral laws don’t violate the categorical imperative. In addition, after explaining Kant’s argument, we will try to argue against Kant’s concept of free will. In the third section of Kant’s Groundwork, he inquires his readers by asking the following question,”…

According to Kant, there is only one thing in the entire world that is completely and utterly good: good will. Good will is what controls, or should control, our talents, desires, and impulses so as to keep them from becoming damaging to society. In turn, how we use our talents and act on our desires and impulses determines our will. Our will is not determined by the outcomes of our decisions or even by how helpful our talents are to society; it is determined by how we use our talents and our…