Alexander Diaz

Kant Reasonable Ethics

Ethics

Word Count: 1118
Help Received: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Kant Chapter 2

Ethical Dilemmas

The question at hand is whether Kant is actually correct about the importance of reason in ethics. To start off, I would indeed agree that Kant is correct that reason should be a part of such a moral decision-making process as ethics. One can see this purely by following his ideas of what goes into reason itself. Kant believes that, for one, reason is the basis of ethics. Two, Kant thinks that reasons and motives matter, whether it be in ethics or general living. Three, Kant believes that we are rational beings and that this is a basic distinction of humanity, therefore it matters to use reason. Now since we have already agreed to Kant’s idea of the importance of reason, it is time to explain in detail what Kant actually thinks about reason.

Kant’s first thought of reason is that it is the basis of ethics. But what is ethics exactly? Well ethics is the moral principles that govern a person’s or group actions or behavior. This means that however we act or whatever we do, we choose a path for ourselves.. Because nobody naturally wants to behave in a way that is nefarious to others. So we rely on our morals to direct us in an ethical path that leads to no harm. And Kant proclaims that it is reason that is the true basis of this process of decision. Kant says that “What I have said makes ·five things· clear: that •all moral concepts have their origin entirely in reason, and this holds as much for the most ordinary common-sense moral concepts as for ·the ones used in· high-level theorizing”(Pg 17). Right here Kant explains that reason is in fact the basis of ethics no matter how menial or how complex the situation might be. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states in deciphering  Kant’s teaching that “The first thing to observe is that Kant explicitly says that reason is the arbiter of truth in all judgments. Unfortunately, the Act as though the maxim of your action were to become, through your will, a universal law of nature. barely develops this thought.We form judgments about the world around us all the time, without a second thought. ”(William 1.1). This is important to ethics because it shows that Kant believed ethics should be based off of the maxim that must be met. It’s important to realize how much emphasis Kant puts into reason. He thought it was the basis for everything we do, even things as simple as realizing there is a hand in front of our face and knowing it exists. To sum it up, Kant was a man of reason and thought of reason as the cornerstone to his ethics.

Next we know that Kant believed reasons and motives mattered especially when it came to ethics. He says that the reason or motives for doing an action could be justified by an ethical standpoint.  So basically reason, which is universal and objective, proves some things right and other things wrong.  Kant says “Act as though the maxim of your action were to become, through your will, a universal law of nature.”(Pg 24). To clarify this, Kant merely means that you should act on something if your reason for doing that thing was truly worth it and could be taken as a reaction later on for others. He goes on to explain a scenario “A man who has been brought by a series of troubles to the point of despair and of weariness with life still has his reason sufficiently to ask himself: ‘Wouldn’t it be contrary to my duty to myself to take my own life?’ Now he asks: ‘Could the maxim of my action ·in killing myself· become a universal law of nature?’ Well, here is his maxim: For love of myself, I make it my principle to cut my life short when prolonging it threatens to bring more troubles than satisfactions.”(Pg 24). We see here that although suicide is not ethical to do. This is the main point Kant is trying to make. Our morals or beliefs might make a certain action unethical, but if there is a good reason behind doing something then the matter of ethics is no longer a problem.

Lastly we come to Kant’s final proposal, that we are rational beings and this fact alone matters when talking about reason. Kant firmly believes that humanity is meant to use reason to decide what course of action to take. He says humanity, or any rational being, should be able to use reason in order to come to a decision for himself and not just will or reason. Kant says “I maintain that man—and in general every rational being—exists as an end in himself and not merely as a means to be used by this or that will at its discretion. Whenever he acts in ways directed towards himself or towards other rational beings, ·a person serves as a means to whatever end his action aims at; but· he must always be regarded as also an end. Things that are preferred have only conditional value, for if the preferences (and the needs arising from them) didn’t exist, their object would be worthless.“(Pg 28). Here Kant explains that without including ourselves in the reasoning process, the whole point of reasoning things out would be worthless. We ourselves have to be the end goal, and when it comes to something like ethics the end goal must be good in general because it cannot cater to only one side or else it cannot be a chief good. Reason is great and is what sets us apart from every other animal on earth, because reason is what gives us special value. Without reason we would blindly follow something we might not always agree upon when the line gets blurred.

Given these three points, one can see why Kant has held reason in such a high regard and why he thinks it is so important to ethics. Reason is our safeguard against situations that are not always black and white. It is something that we can use to put ourselves forward and think through the end goals. When it comes to ethics, reason helps us to decypher right from wrong and gives us motive to decide with an end goal in mind. This is because reason is as much a valuable resource to us as morals and ethics are.

Works Cited

Williams, Garrath, “Kant’s Account of Reason”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)