PHLB09H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Kantian Ethics, Supererogation, Meta-Ethics
Document Summary
A member of the medical team ventures into cross-fire to transport all infants in. Orphan 1 outside the war zone, where each then receives the care needed to live a healthy life. Utilitarianism has been accused of permitting the impermissible. Utilitarianism has been accused of requiring what seems only supererogatory (permitted but not required) Kant proposed a different general principle that was meant to capture all of ethics. [we are(cid:374)(cid:859)t looki(cid:374)g at the (cid:373)eta-ethical framework that leads him to this principle, but we are going to briefly visit the principle itself. ] Utilitarianism advocates for producing the best outcome, but kantian ethics emphasizes the means and motives of agents. There are two important formulations of the kantian principle of morality (kant took them to be equivalent) First for(cid:373)ulatio(cid:374): (cid:862)a(cid:272)t o(cid:374)l(cid:455) a(cid:272)(cid:272)ordi(cid:374)g to a (cid:373)a(cid:454)i(cid:373) (cid:271)(cid:455) (cid:449)hi(cid:272)h (cid:455)ou (cid:272)a(cid:374) at the sa(cid:373)e ti(cid:373)e (cid:449)ill that it should (cid:271)e a u(cid:374)i(cid:448)ersal la(cid:449)(cid:863: maxim your subjective action that explains why you act like that.
