Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals

Kant's virulent opposition to suicide, one might note, is based on religious grounds. He echoes Socrates in arguing that since humans are divine property, they cannot dispose of themselves without...

In his moral philosophy, Kant sought to remove ethics from the realm of religion and place them instead on a wholly rational foundation. For him, religious ethics were heteronomous; that is, they...

Kant differentiates between hypothetical and categorical imperatives. Hypothetical imperatives have conditions: "In X situation, I would have to do Y to get Z," or "At work, I would have to sell...

According to Kant, all of the things that you mention can be good, but they can be bad as well. These are all personal attributes that can be used by people to do very good things. The problem is...

Kant's approach to ethics and moral philosophy is based on the idea that the Categorical Imperative (CI) defines what is good or right and what is bad or immoral. The CI is based on the inherent...

The major contrast here is between what are known as deontological and consequentialist ways of thinking about ethics. In other words, the main difference between Kantian and utilitarian ethics is...

Kant argued that, in acting morally, we should always treat other people as ends in themselves, not as a means to an end. This means, among other things, that I should value other people for who...

Although Morris claims he did not intend to release the worm as a malicious act, merely as a research project, the very fact that he disguised its origin by releasing it from MIT rather than his...

Kant is associated with the Copernican Revolution not because his thought owed any particular debt to Copernicus, but because he regarded his synthesis of the empirical (i.e. what we can observe...