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“COMPARE AND CONTRAST KANTIAN AND UTILITARIAN APPROACHES TO ETHICS.”
In this essay I intend to examine the approaches to ethics taken by Immanuel Kant and Utilitarianism. ... I shall examine the Utilitarian mode of living first and then compare it with what Kant has to say.
The Utilitarian approach to ethics deals with empirical rather than normative judgements. ... ”( Raphael,1981,34)
The concept of Utilitarianism has been cited as going as far back as Socrates and Aristotle, and certainly the Utilitarian philosophers of the nineteenth century never claimed to be pioneers. ... This theory will be important when looking at Kant who disagreed with this idea of a lack of objective values, but agreed with the subjective analysis of the world we live in.
For many Utilitarian philosophers, the philosophy was a tool for radical social and political reform. ... He built on the Utilitarian belief that usually man is self interested, but not always. ...
One of the more obvious contrasts between Kant and Utility is the principle of end and means. Kant placed an “absolute emphasis on the goodwill as the sole determinant of moral goodness. ... For Kant the end did not justify the means. For Kant it was important to understand the principle or the cause of actions to not just accept that this was the nature of things.
While Kant certainly didn’t discount Hume’s approach, he felt total subordination to it would lead to total scepticism about everything. Metaphysics for Kant “became less a search into the nature of the world beyond us. ... 100) For Kant neither metaphysics nor modern science accounted for the importance of human rationality. For Kant the “autonomy of the will is regarded as the supreme principle of morality” (Trigg, 1988, 97) Writing in the period of Enlightenment or the age of reason, Kant called for humans to realise their autonomy, to not be directed by others. Like Utilitarianism he realised mans propensity (or weakness) for giving up to their desires, but for Kant the pursuit of pleasure was not the main determinant of human behaviour or the goal of society overall. Edging toward a more metaphysical approach Kant proposed the transcendental self, rising from the causality of nature. ... 60) For Kant our ability to remove our materialistic shackles to do what is morally right, makes us more free than Utilitarian man who is constantly chained to his desire for individual or societal pleasure. ...
The rational pursuit of duty, Kant said will allow us to know if our actions are truly motivated by the general good. Duty will not always produce happiness, for the individual or society, indeed Kant felt that acts that the individual doesn’t find pleasurable are to be deemed more honourable. ... ”(Kant, 1788, cited Singer, 1994, 40) Like Mill, Kant held other virtues such as intellect and knowledge as important, but they were to be ranked lower than the goodwill.
Approximate Word count = 2341
Approximate Pages = 9.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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