Kantian Ethics

Some key ideas from the lecture:

• Kantian ethics responds to the need for moral truths to have an independent justification which depends on reason and not just on intuition or implicit agreement.


• Kant argues that if a law is to be morally valid, then it must follow with absolute necessity.


• He provides such an algorithm in the form of the Categorical Imperative.


• The Categorical Imperative is similar to--but more universal and less subjective than--the Golden Rule.


• The core of morality is not what we do but why we do it. What matters is that an action is motivated by ethical reasoning. Acting out of duty is moral; acting in accordance with duty is not enough.
  


• Principle-based ethical theories are called deontological; Kant's ethical theory is the best known example but many contemporary ethicists are also deontologists.
  

If you have any questions, feel free to raise them in the comments section.

Now just for fun, what would a political attack ad against Kant be like?