1. Kant and the Role of Reason Two things fill me with constantly increasing admiration and awe, the longer and more earnestly I reflect on them: the starry heavens without and the moral law within. —Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) The Critique of Practical Reason

2. The Big Picture  Kant's ethics is a doctrine of the human ability to live according to moral thought.  His aim: to forge a path in philosophy between the two popular trends of purely deductive reasoning and purely experiential explanations of knowledge.

3.  Purely deductive reasoning is driven by rules of logic and often starts from a premise that cannot be proven. Practicality is not relevant.  Radical empiricism holds that only experience can be our teacher, and so looks for what ‘really’ happens and how people experience things. Theory is not relevant unless it is firmly based upon experience.

4. Kant argued that both empirical reality and reason were essential to knowledge: “All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.”

5. Morality, for Kant, derives from moral reflection, using reason to interpret and analyze experience and to arrive at conclusions – ultimately principles – that would serve as a guide for right behavior.

6. Reason  No other living creature has it (as far as we know).  It is the attribute that makes us able to determine how we ought to act – and this, after all, is what morality is about.  “We are able to step beyond the confines of our inclinations, needs, and self- interests that place us within the world of experience, and to act in a situation in a way we determine that we ought to act. In recognizing a duty from which we decide we should act, we recognize the moral will within us.”

7. Imperatives  Our reason tells us that we should do certain things. However, there are different justifications for acts, and only one is moral.  Hypothetical Imperative: If you want X, then you should do Y.  Categorical Imperative: You should do Z because reason tells you it is your duty and is right.

8. Categorical Imperatives Categorical imperatives are governed by reason and take the form of absolute principles derived at and justified through logic:  You ought to be honest, because reason tells you that honesty is the fundamental virtue on which all others stand.  You ought to care for your aging parents, because it is your duty as their child.  You ought not to cheat on exams, because if everyone did, there would be no point in testing.

9. Categorical Imperative, Formulation 1 1. Only act if the principle of your action applied universally is not self-defeating. Implications: --universality --reversibility

10. Categorical Imperative, Formulation 2 2. So act as to use humanity, both in your own person and in the person of every other, always at the same time as an end, never merely as a means. Or… Always act with impartial recognition of every person's right, including yourself, to be treated with respect. --negative imperative --positive imperative

11. Categorical Imperative, Formulation 3 3. Act as if you were a member of a moral community governed by moral principles that can be universally applied without becoming self-defeating, and that treat every person with respect. --responding to the “ideal”

12. Apply the Categorical Imperative  Case 1  Case 2  Case 3

13. The Firm as a Moral Community  Erik is finishing up his stockroom inventory at the electronics store, when the manager comes in and says, “You can get those gaming systems down and ready for a clearance sale. The new model’s coming out in two weeks, so we need to get rid of these.” Erik, who also handles floor sales, wonders what his regular customers will think if they buy a system on sale and suddenly the new model comes out?

14. Some questions….  Can the reason for such behavior be applied universally without the act then becoming self-defeating?  How would Erik feel if he were the customer?  Is the manager’s command respectful of customers? Of Erik?  Is the manager “acting as if” he lived in a world governed by moral rules?

15. Summary: Kant’s Categorical Imperative  First formulation: Only act if the principle of your action applied universally is not self- defeating. Universality Reversibility  Second formulation: Always act with impartial recognition of every person's right, including yourself, to be treated with respect. Respect for everyone  Third formulation: Act as if you were a member of a moral community governed by moral principles that can be universally applied without becoming self-defeating, and that treat every person with respect. Act “as if”