Immanuel Kant and Utilitarianism

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) showed a great respect for powerful thinking and the persistent ways of thinking. Kant says that since he has a mind of his own morals should be based on cause and effect, self-identity, the external world, and God. Kant is a strong believer in his categorical Imperative and his distinction of theoretical reason and practical reason.
According to Kant, the death penalty is a practical idea. He says that the death penalty is what a person deserves from their actions, or from their choices. He explains that what people feel is irrelevant and that only rational humans deserve that death penalty. He says that the moral law is a function of reason and is not discovered by daily life. Soccio exclaims it on page 337 as, “The moral law cannot be discovered in actual behavior. It is a function of reason, a component of how we think. From this if follows that only rational creatures can be moral and held morally accountable. It also follows that any and all rational creatures are moral beings. The capacity for reason is the source of morality. Reason imposes moral obligation.”

“According to Kant, what is needed is a categorical imperative, a command that is universally binding on all rational creatures. This alone can guide the good will. Indeed, the good will is precisely that which summons all its powers in order to obey such an imperative.” Soccio page 342. In the categorical imperative, Kant says that the basis of moral right is that humans must always look at the ends and not the means. He also said that if everyone lied then the meaning of truth would be gone. For example, if someone said they would fulfill a promise, but didn’t the trust in that promise would get progressively less and less. He coined the phrase, “I ought never to act except in such a way that I can will my maxim should be a universal law.” He also stated that a moral rule must be self-imposed (prudential), not imposed from outside (ethics). He view on laws was that they may or may not be morally wrong, but a law is not moral rights. So for Kant, the categorical imperative is essential.

Utilitarianism is all about the greater good. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was a true utilitarian. He believed that in the end, whatever deed is the most positive is the correct one. Kant, on the other hand, believed that it is all about rules and principals. But for ultilitarians principals were in significant, it was all about the situation, it was all relative.