Kant Essay example - 1045 Words

Immanuel Kant, a supporter of capital punishment, offered us of the most complicated, if not ambiguous, views on the subject. In fact, he would’ve ironically disagreed with its modern proponents. Those who advocate capital punishment today often do so for utilitarian reasons. For example, the death sentence would protect society by not only preventing a purpertrator from committing the same crime again, it would also deter others by setting an example. Kant would’ve argued the rights of the condemned are being trampled; by using him as an example, we are using him as a means to an end. A rational being, in Kant’s view, is an end in himself, whether criminal or law-abiding citizen. We would thus be violating his humanity.†¦show more content†¦nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Therefore, the question becomes this: for equality to be served, how would punishment fit the crime? Is it appropriate to deprive a thief of his property? In the case of murder, Kant would vi ew the death sentence as the only adequate response. There is nothing proportional to the crime of murder other than depriving the life of the killer. Anything less would leave the scales of justice out of balance. Kant offers us strong words in this regard. â€Å"If society were to suddenly to abolish itself the last murder lying in prison ought to be executed†¦that everyone may realize the desert of his deeds,† and â€Å"that bloodguiltiness may not remain upon the people.† (Kant: anderson) However, if a criminal were to torture his victim to death, must he be exposed to the same fate? If we follow his line of argument, it would seem that Kant would answer yes. Jus talionis. Let the punishment be proportional to the crime. Let the criminal suffer as his victim. But here’s where Kant surprises us. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Most of us would agree that torture is inhuman. If we were to apply jus talionis in this regard, we would in essence become criminals ourselves. Kant seems to realize this when he states the following: â€Å"His [the murderer’s] death... must be kept free from all maltreatment that would make the humanity suffering in his person loathsome or abominable.† (Kant:Show MoreRelatedImmanuel Kant And The Kant Essay1263 Words   |  6 Pages Immanuel Kant Lying Chiyane Peterson MCCC Ethics MW 1:30pm Parviz Dehghani Lying the one form of communication that is the untruth expressed to be the truth. Immanuel Kant states that lying is morally wrong in all possible ways. His hatred for lying has made him â€Å"just assumed that anyone who lied would be operating with a maxim like this: tell a lie so as to gain some benefit.†(Landau,pp.171) This is true for a vast number of people, they will lie in orderRead MoreKant s Principles Of Kant1743 Words   |  7 Pages The work of Immanuel Kant focuses on the idea that of everything in the world it is only good will that can be taken as â€Å"good without qualification† (Kant, 393). Unlike qualities or talents, which can be used both for good and for bad, good will is considered by Kant to be unequivocally good. Therefore, Kant’s principles require an individual to make decisions only based rationally upon the principles, or maxim, behind that decision, without consideration of the consequences that that actionRead MoreKant And Kant s Philosophy1657 Words   |  7 Pagesuniversal a priori condition which alone things can become objects of our cognition in general[.]† -Immanuel Kant, p 20 of Critique of Judgment This quote most aptly describes Kant’s purpose in writing a critique of aesthetic judgment, with the most important term being â€Å"transcendental.† The Oxford Dictionary defines the word as â€Å"presupposed in and necessary to experience† (what Kant refers to as a priori). In this sense, it is something that pertains to elements of human experience and thenRead MoreKant : Kant s Ethics1293 Words   |  6 PagesKhaled AlMarwani Philosophical Ethics PHL270 Dr. Elizabeth F. Cooke Question # 1: Kant’s Ethics According to my humble reading, Kant is considered the hardest to read, grasp and understand among the philosophers that we came across studying ethics. According to Kant, nothing could be called good without qualification except a good will. And the good will is the desire or the tendency to do your duty because it is your duty, not anything else. Thus, nothing can be gained out of an actionRead MoreImmanuel Kant And Kant On Morality1097 Words   |  5 Pagesdifferent societies. Examples would be don’t cheat, don’t steal, and treat others as you would want to be treated. When dealing with the philosophers take on morality, there are two which are usually compared to one another, Immanuel Kant and David Hume. Immanuel Kant had many theories throughout his philosophical time. Here are some of his ethical works, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785), the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and the Metaphysics of Morals (1797), which contains bothRe ad MoreKant And Kant s Philosophy2023 Words   |  9 PagesImmanuel Kant was an exceptional philosopher who often fantasized about the wonders of the human perception. Through the power of imagination in the human mind Kant was able to postulate possible answers to the great questions of existence. He was daring and bold to wonder what constitutes the beauty of the human soul, how the existence of an all-powerful entity would be possible, and also what do human beings really do to perceive their surroundings. With such notable works as Critiques of PracticalRead MoreKant And Kant s Metaphysical Theorizing1303 Words   |  6 Pageswere possible. For Kant, the question of how synthetic a-priori judgements operated was central to understanding the nature of human thinking, and to enabling metaphysics. Previously Kant had been alerted to the writings of David Hume. Hume had effectively claimed that knowledge only came from analytic a-priori judgments or by synthetic a-posteriori. Hume criticized the notion of cause and effect, and claimed it to be product of conventions of thought, rather than reason. Kant had recognized thatRead MoreKant And Kant s Categorical Imperative1241 Words   |  5 Pages Immanuel Kant, an 18th-century moral philosopher, had contended that the fundamental principle of morality is the Categorical Imperative, from here will be additionally labeled as (CI) or otherwise mentioned. He supported his view by suggesting a pure moral philosophy; a metaphysics of morals that is not solely for rational beings to explore different ¬ sources of basic moral principles that are found through their own observational experience a priori, but additionally for the sake of morality asRead MoreKant And Kant s Universal Law Essay1458 Words   |  6 PagesDoes Kant successfully establish that one must never under any circumstances or for any purpose tell a lie? In this essay, I will argue that Immanuel Kant fails to successfully establish lying as morally impermissible because the claim that lying is morally impermissible goes against common sense. Kant defines his Universal Law to demonstrate the necessary action one must take in order to act in a way that is morally permissible and uses it in support of his belief that one’s motive is the soleRead MoreKant And Kant s Moral Ethics862 Words   |  4 PagesAccording to Kant, We have these absolute duties to ourselves and these duties to oneself become the supreme principle of all duties. Therefore, these supreme self-duties are the reason why moral ethics exist, and without our duties to oneself there would be no other duties, nor would we, as a species, survive at all. However, these self-regarding duties can be very contradicting, but can help us understand the bigger picture of the categorical imperative. Kant believes that we must â€Å"act only according