PHIL 2070 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Immanuel Kant, Kantian Ethics, Asteroid Family
Document Summary
Like plato, kant draws a distinction between matters of empirical perception, and matters of reason. Empirical perception includes feelings, thoughts and desires. Kant"s view is that ethics is not about perception. This is because on kant"s view, perception does not furnish us with adequate justification for action. We might feel motivated to do something but this does not imply that it is just. Kant notes that sometimes we may even feel like doing something that is correct. On kant"s account, this detracts from ethical merit of the action. Kant"s example of emotions gone wrong: shop keeper (dealer, tradesman) Accordingly the action was done neither from duty nor from direct inclination, but merely with a selfish view. (kant, groundwork, first section) Kant"s example of emotions gone correct: the philanthropist. To rectify ethics from perception, kant recommends three propositions for guiding thinking about ethics. (1) This claim renders the weakness of will irrelevant to moral appraisal. (3)
