Kant’s Simple Guidelines

Immanuel Kant’s morals are quite simple, to not undermine anyone else’s rationality and autonomy. That is to respect them, one point Kant stresses out, we must not use other humans as mere means. And to promote happiness of others.  Where as Utilitarianism is an egalitarian moral, maximize happiness for the greater mass. Pursuit of pleasure and the absence of pain. Now Bentham’s and Mill’s differ in what we define as hedonism. Mill argues that as human beings we must not disregard our rationality and autonomy, and compare to other animals.  

Personally, Kant’s morals seem a simple guideline to follow; they are the most plausible. Self-perfection and promote happiness to others. In Kant’s view the outcome of the action does not tell us whether it was ethical or not, the intention does. America’s first manned space mission brought a terrible disaster to many families as well as fellow citizens, yet the intentions were for the pursuit of knowledge. Man’s ingenuity let us witness what was beyond our reach. Kant would argue that the action was ethical, even if it brought pain and mourn to many. Moreover, an example Kant gave. Lying is a bad intention, but could save a person’s life. A “good” outcome is still unethical since a person’s rationality is undermined. Something definitely controversial. However, Kant sets these examples as black or white. We are either being moral or immoral. And it all depends on our intentions. This is why Kant’s morals are more plausible.  His rules simply narrow down to respecting others and making everyone happy, and doing so we will perfect ourselves and find happiness, hence not disregarding ourselves.

All good intentions are ethical. All acts towards self-perfection are with good intentions. Therefore, all acts towards self-perfection are ethical.