The Bible also calls for the application of human free will to morality, as does Kant. Stories in the Bible reveal how human actors either obey or disobey the moral codes prescribed to them by the Biblical authorities, namely God. When God issues a "thou shalt," that moral law is ensconced. The person has free will, and therefore can be tricked by a malicious force symbolized by Satan. It is necessary to have free will for the categorical imperative to work, which is why there is the problem between good and evil in the first place. If it were easy for human beings to always do good, then Kant would have not had the impetus to write Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. There would be an imperative to act, but it would not be categorical. Free will empowers the human being to make morally righteous choices, in accordance with the tenets of human reason.
One formulation of the categorical imperative that illustrates the concept is related to gay marriage. Interestingly, many "Bible thumpers" use the Mosaic law foundation as a means to bolster a spurious case against equality and human rights. Yet there is nothing in Mosaic law that prohibits gay marriage per se. Gay marriage as a sociological phenomenon did not exist at the time of the writing of the Bible: Hebrew or Christian. Therefore, one must look to the moral codes embedded in...
Living authentically "as if" my actions had the force of reason strikes me as very similar to living in deliberate opposition to reason -- which, in a contemporary milieu, often entails structuring a life according to personal experience or even faith. In an era in which the irrational is widely accepted and even embraced -- through the thought of Freud, Kierkegaard, and others in addition to Nietzsche himself --
Fidelity is also an obligation, to the journalist's ethics in particular truthtelling. Beneficence could be applied to helping law enforcement. As the decision at hand consists of two mutually exclusive options, one of these obligations would need to be overriding. It is most likely that for the journalist this would be to communicate all of the information in keeping with the journalistic code of ethics. This approach, however, does
According to utilitarian ethical theory, a lie would be very moral indeed if it increased someone's happiness without creating detriment to anyone -- telling a child that their unintelligible crayon markings is a great picture of a house, for instance, boosts their self-esteem and helps them to feel loved, and no one in the art world suffers for this white lie. Utilitarianism also provides a solution to conflicting duties that
Introduction The consideration of when it is or is not legitimate to use military force against another group or country is one that requires astute ethical analysis. Deontological ethics can be useful for determining the moral righteousness of military intervention, specifically given the ability of a duty-based ethical system to offer the international community a set of ground rules member states can agree upon. The Geneva Convention is a prime example
Ethics The nineteenth century German philosopher Immanuel Kant presented an ethical code that assigned a strict "right" or "wrong" to every action. Called the categorical imperative, Kant believed that it does not matter what the consequences or outcome of actions are; there are certain things that are right and certain things that are wrong. These ethical categories of right and wrong are not negotiable. It can never be "sometimes" ok to
Utilitarianism is a consequentialist ethical framework. The consequences of an action are more important than the motivations behind the action or the action itself. An action has "utility" if it serves the greatest good. The basic principle of utilitarianism is creating the greatest good for the greatest number of people, or the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. The ethics of utilitarianism differ from ethical egoism in that
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now