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In Favor of Kant

In: Philosophy and Psychology

Submitted By jbegum12
Words 854
Pages 4
In Favor Of Kant
3/17/13

As per reading this assignment, one can already tell how complicated the situation is. How can I prevent an upheaval in my town by not finding the actual murderer but framing an innocent homeless man who is oblivious to the entire situation prior to entering the town? How can this be justified? Should the idea of framing someone innocent even be thought of? Having two philosophers in mind, Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill, I immediately distinguish the theories and arguments and come to a conclusion which I think will justify this difficult case. I shall argue in favor of Immanuel Kant that that the homeless man should not be arrested and framed and why Mill’s theory of Utilitarianism doesn’t apply to this case.
Immanuel Kant observed the world around him and realized that everyone despite different cultures or religions obeyed a specific kind of moral law. For Kant, an action can only be correct, if it is the taken out of duty. He believed that the rightness or wrongness of actions does not depend on their consequences but on whether they act on moral duty. We all have a duty, and those duties should obey the supreme principal which is the categorical imperative. These are duties that we ought to do because they are unconditional commands. The universal law formulation explains that one should act on maxim through which can become a universal law in nature if it applies to each and every person in society. Everyone should conform to an action to which if the rest of the world did and it benefits society, it will be acceptable. The reversal component allows us to see if an action is acceptable if someone else did it to you. In acting this imperative, it eliminates self- interest and promotes good will. Good will allows people to perform one’s duty for the sake of duty and no other reason.
Utilitarianism claims to be a

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