kategorischer Imperativ
Kant's test for a moral maxim: act only as you could will that everyone act, regardless of the act's consequences.
Asks: what if everybody acted on the principle I'm acting on now? If that would be a disaster, you are probably making an exception for yourself.
The image Shore uses for it, in our paraphrase.
In lecture order, as Marci Shore presents each view. The time opens that minute of the lecture on YouTube.
Humans possess dignity, which is "above all price," because they are free moral agents. Hence Kant's basic rule: treat every person as an end, never merely as a means.
Put simply Kant: people have dignity, a worth beyond any price, because they are free moral beings. So never treat a person merely as a tool for your purposes; always treat them as valuable in themselves.
Where to read it Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Ak. 4:429 and 4:434–435.
For Kant, acting morally means acting from duty, not from whatever one feels like doing; acts are judged by their intentions, never by consequences nobody can control.
Kant's test when unsure whether an act is moral: imagine everyone acting on your principle. Should disaster follow, the act fails.
In the text In the Groundwork (1785; Gregor translation), Kant's test is whether I "could also will that my maxim should become a universal law"; a maxim fails when it cannot be universalized without contradiction.
Links from these claims to others in the course. Each shows the earlier claim, then the later one that answers it. “Our inference” marks a link Shore does not state outright.
KantFor Kant, acting morally means acting from duty, not from whatever one feels like doing; acts are judged by their intentions, never by consequences nobody can control. L3 · 31:51
FichteFor Fichte, sincerity and motive outweigh consequences. Whatever it costs, you must not betray your own ideals. L3 · 37:32
Radicalizes Kant's focus on motive over consequence into an absolute imperative never to betray one's ideals.
KantKant's test when unsure whether an act is moral: imagine everyone acting on your principle. Should disaster follow, the act fails. L3 · 32:07
NietzscheWhat eternal recurrence means is disputed. On one Kantian reading, you should live every moment as though it would return forever, acting only as you would wish to see repeated. L6 · 40:45
Shore reports one interpretation of eternal recurrence as Kantian, going back to the categorical imperative; she does not say Nietzsche took it from Kant.
KantFor Kant, acting morally means acting from duty, not from whatever one feels like doing; acts are judged by their intentions, never by consequences nobody can control. L3 · 31:51
HegelHegel rejects Kant's intention-centered morality as inadequate: acts usually have consequences far beyond what anyone meant, so their meaning can be judged only in hindsight. L4 · 29:14
Intentions are not enough; actions are judged by consequences that exceed them
KantHumans possess dignity, which is "above all price," because they are free moral agents. Hence Kant's basic rule: treat every person as an end, never merely as a means. L3 · 31:51
MarxIn the Manifesto's picture, capitalism's profit motive converts what ought to be relations between persons into relations between things, and human beings themselves into commodities. L5 · 42:38
Shore sees Kantian influence in the Manifesto's objection to people being turned into things: a person is an end, not a means.
KantKant's test when unsure whether an act is moral: imagine everyone acting on your principle. Should disaster follow, the act fails. L3 · 32:07
SartreAnguish is the price of responsibility: whoever commits to anything settles not only who they will be but, in effect, legislates for all humanity. Absolute freedom means absolute responsibility. L13 · 44:48
Choosing for oneself is choosing for everyone: a Kantian universalizing moment inside existentialism
Throughlines that pass through one of these claims.
Terms that appear in the same claims.