Kant: Ethics and Ethical Theory Refuts Essay

Submitted By shaqtraylor
Words: 774
Pages: 4

When comparing and contrasting kants views too the views of Utilitarianism any person who was knowledged in both areas would easily tell you they are one in the same. In fact that person would not be entirely wrong in making that statement, but at the same time they would certainly not be entirely right either. To make a statemenmt of thios sort you would first have to figure out the pros and cons of each view and then decide from that point where the two views meet and where they differ. As one would start to study Kant and his ethical theories its easy to see that Kant was a very simple and clear man. What that means is that his views where very cut and dry and very little room for debate. His views are simple, but just like anything there are both pros and cons to his theories. Immediately kants theory shows a flaw in Utilitarianism which is “a bad act can have good consequences” kants ethical theory refuts this. Kant instead provides moral laws that hold universally, regardless of culture or individual situations. He provides us a simple system that even children could understand; He poses a question to us as human beings, which is basically do unto others as you would wish for them to do unto you, in other words if you wouldn’t want someone to do it to you then don’t do it to someone else. He believes in having respect for human dignity and autonomy. His views are purely rational; they do not show favourtism to family or friends, and are not swayed by emotion. Kants views happen to be very strict, acting out of compassion is out of line for Kant. He believes in Duty, because it is possible to act out love and make bad decisions, if you act out of strictly duty you can never be wrong. His views also happen to be very liable in almost any circumstance, he believes in a set of rules, if everyone has obligations then they know what they have to do. If you allowed people to break rules because of consequences, or out of love, the legal system would be an atroscidy. Kants views however are forever being challenged by the ones who believe is system and views are flawed as well. An example would be what if someone was dying and a twelve year old boy was the only one who knew the proper way to save the persons life. Now the boy is not a licensed doctor or nurse and for the sake of this example has no prior medical experience. Kant would argue the fact that there are a set of rules that need to be followed and if the child is not certified then he has no right to help the dying person therefore killing the person in the process. This is the inflexibility in Kants views that people have a problem with most people believe There are some occasions when