1.Strong set of moral principles that prohibit acts that would commonly be considered as wrong. Eg Theft, murder, violence, sex abuse etc.
Kant does not base his theory upon existing laws of God and does not refer to a power beyond the universe as a source of authority.
His system judges the act itself – deontological. He believed that humans seek the summum bonum and this led them to act correctly They act out of a sense of duty.
Explain about what Kant called the Categorical imperative.
2.They show respect for lifeInto all this Kant constructed three checks to ensure that actions were well motivated. These he called the three formulations of the categorical imperative.
Say what they are and what they mean.
Kant considered that people were important in themselves and should not be used as means to ends.
3.He makes the distinction between duty and inclination. We may be inclined to do what benefits us individually. But for Kant, morality is more than personal preference.
Kant would not have known about Situation ethics and the concept of agape. But he would never have agreed to such a nebulous term being used as a means of determining right from wrong. Nor would he have been impressed by Bentham’s insistence on happiness.
4.He argues against consequentialism. He disliked the idea that some suffering might be all right if it promoted happiness for the majority. Kant would say that you cannot promote happiness by undermining someone else’s happiness. The moral value of an action comes from its intrinsic worth. In other words he is against any system which tries to predict the future from uncertain consequences.
The difference between Kan’t’s deontological system and that of Aquinas is that Aquinas’ ideas are very fixed and based upon an understanding of God. Kant does not believe that humans can know anything about God but he does trust his own inclinations and his own sense of duty.
5.Humans have intrinsic worth. Humans can only ever be treated as ends in themselves. They must never be a means to an end. In this respect he was against exploitation or slavery. Equally so he would be against prostitution or child labour.
On the other hand though there are those who feel he would have been against stem cell research of genetic engineering.
