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Scholarly Paper

Kant Moral Philosophy

Ibrahim Ayasreh & Islam Oweidat

Professor. Ferial Hayajneh

The University of Jordan

2017
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Introduction

In this paper, I briefly explored the life and distinguished works of one of the most

innovative philosophers in the world who is Immanuel Kant. In the first section, I wrote a

synopsis about Immanuel Kant’s personal life, biography, and main philosophical works. In the

second section, I wrote in more details about one of the major works of him which is moral

philosophy of Kant. Finally, I discussed how we can apply Kant’s moral philosophy in nursing

discipline; I applied Kant’s moral philosophy on a euthanasia as one of most common ethical

dilemma that face nurses in their practice.

Biography of Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant is one of the greatest philosophers in the world, whose distinguished works

on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics were the major inspiration of many

subsequent philosophers (Atwell, 2012; Uleman, 2010; Manfred, 2001)

Immanuel Kant was born on April 1724, in Konigsberg, Prussia. He was one of nine

children born to Georg Cant and Anna Regina Cant who were followers of Pietism, a branch of

the Protestant Church, and this was reflected on his early elementary education as he studied in

Saint George's Hospital School and then he went to the Collegium Fredericianum which was

considered as a Pietism – based school. However, in the later years, Kant became one of the

famous critical of formal religion. (Manfred, 2001)

In 1740, Kant registered as student in the university of Königsberg to study theology. But he

became interested also in philosophy, mathematics, and the natural sciences. In 1746, his father

died, and he had to work hardly as a private tutor (was paid directly by the students who attended

his lectures) to improve his financial status. In 1755, Kant presented his considerable treatise
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“On Fire” through which he received a doctoral degree. Beginning from 1755, Kant worked as

lecturer in philosophy in the university of Königsberg for 15 years, and in 1770 he got the full

professorship from the same university. (Manfred, 2001)

During his life, Immanuel Kant wrote very distinguished essays in philosophy. The most

famous one was Critique of Pure Reason in which he explained how experience and reason

interact in thought and understanding. The Critique of Pure Reason is a methodology of how

“understanding and reason can know apart from experience”. This revolutionary idea means that

the mind organizes our experiences into the way the world appears and the way that we think

about the world. (Höffe, 2010)

Kant suggests that the theories of God, freedom, and immorality are not proved or disproved

through the use of reason, nor can the use of scientific methods prove or disprove their existence.

The idea of them is beyond the realm of human experience. Kant expressed that faith in God,

freedom, and immorality are rational beliefs because their existence makes an orderly and moral

world a possibility. (Höffe, 2010, Manfred, 2001)

Kant was known of his strict routinely life pattern which he followed during his life. He got

up daily at 5 a.m., and spent the hours after in drinking tea, smoking pipe, mediation, preparing

lectures, working in study room, dining usually with friends, reading, and writing. He was

completely loyal to his work, and he never married. (Manfred, 2001)

During the last years of his life, he became discontent due to suffering of dementia which

severely affected his ability to work but he continued to write nearly until the very end of his life.

He died in 1804, aged 80. (Manfred, 2001)

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Kant’s Moral Philosophy

Kant moral theory is considered one of the deontological moral theories. This means –

according to these theories - that the rightness or wrongness of action is not evaluated depending

on their consequences but on whether they accomplish duty or not.

Duties are moral obligations, which are determined – according to Kant – by a supreme

standard of morality which called it “categorical imperative”. (Uleman, 2010)

Hypothetical and Categorical Imperatives

In general, Imperatives are defined as authoritative commands. Imperatives are classified

into hypothetical and categorical. Hypothetical imperatives command contingently on having a

relevant demand or goal. On the other hand, categorical imperative is unconditional command. In

other words, we call imperatives as categorical if we have rational wills, without being attributed

to the end that we might or might not have. (Uleman, 2010)

Example of hypothetical imperative Example of categorical imperative

“if you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands” “Clap your hands”

Moral Worth

According to Kant, anyone is considered as good or bad depending on the will of his/her

actions and not on the goodness of the outcomes of those actions. This means that the good will

is the only morally good without any qualifications. In other words, if a person's emotions or

desires cause them to do something, then that action cannot give them moral worth. Additionally,

if two persons act for the right reasons, then both are morally worthy, even if the actions of one
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of them happen to lead to bad outcomes by bad luck. For example, if two independent nurses did

cardiopulmonary resuscitation for two clients in separate occasions and both have good right

intention to save the life of their clients. However, one of these CPR was successful and one

nurse successfully rescued his client, whereas another nurse failed to rescue his client and CPR

was unsuccessful. According to Kant, both nurses are considered good person and have a moral

worth, because both of them have the right good reasons for their actions regardless of the

outcomes of their actions. (Uleman, 2010)

In summary, the person is considered as good person if he/she always does their duty

because it is their duty either he/she enjoyed it or didn’t enjoy it.

Formulations of Kant’s Moral Theory

Kant created three major formulations to represent what is categorical imperative. Actually,

they are alternatives, meaning that they are different methods to say the same things. These

formulations include: Formula of Universal Law, Formula of Humanity, Formula of Autonomy,

and Formula of Kingdom of Ends. (Uleman, 2010)

Formula of Universal Law

This formula is represented by Kant by the following statement:

“Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it

become a universal law”

Maxim is subjective volitional rule or principle. And this means that if you adopted to follow

this maxim, you must always do according to it as all other people also must follow that maxim.

You are not allowed to make exceptions for yourself. For example, if you expect other people
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not to lie, then you are obligated also not to lie. In other words, the first formulation, requires that

every maxim (principle or rule) you act on must be such that you are willing to make it the case

that everyone always act on that maxim when in a similar situation. Let’s go back to the example

of lie, as if someone lied to get a loan from bank, this rule or behavior should become as

universal law that all people also can use lying to get a loan from bank, and in this case, the bank

will not give any loans next times because it will not trust any people, so that this maxim or rule

(lying) will fail by itself. The success of example’s maxim (lying) will be probable only if it was

exception for that someone only, and this surely contradicts with the first formulation of Kant.

Steps of testing a suggested categorical imperative:

1) Formulate the maxim.

for example: “ i will not assist that older man to cross the road, because it will not benefit

me”

2) Universalize the maxim into a law of nature. turn your maxim into a universal law. in this

case, the universal law that corresponds to the maxim in the previous example will be as

following:

“everyone will not assist others, if he/she will not benefit from it”.

3) Imagine trying to adopt the maxim in such a world. what would the world be like if your

maxim were a universally followed law of nature? Is this feasible or reasonable? this can

be determined be the following two questions:

3.a. Could I rationally act on my maxim in the world?

3.b. Could I rationally choose that world (in which the maxim is adopted) as one

in which I would be a member?

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The first question is called “Contradiction in Conception Test”, and the second question

is called “Contradiction in the Will Test”.

If a maxim contradicts with the first question, then we have a perfect duty to abstain from acting

on that maxim

If a maxim contradicts with the second question but not first question, then we have an imperfect

duty to abstain from acting on that maxim.

Examples of perfect and imperfect duties are presented in the following table. Furthermore,

perfect duties are considered as duties of justice, and must be enforced by public and judicial

laws. On the other hand, imperfect duties are considered as duties of virtue, and may be subject

to ethical evaluation but we can’t enforce anyone to do them.

Perfect Duties Imperfect Duties

“Keep your promises” "Help others when they are in need of help,"

"Don’t lie," "Make the best use of your talents

"Don’t kill anyone”

Formula of Humanity:

This formula is represented by Kant by the following statement:

"Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person

of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end."
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In this formula, Kant wanted people to focus on respect in their relationships, meaning that

people must deal with each other as an end not just as a means. In other words, people must deal

with each other with taking in consideration their ends or purposes. For example, the salesman in

a shop serve to me what I want, but not for free nor by coercion , he gave me what I want for a

money (salesman end or purpose) which I gave him. (Uleman, 2010)

On the other hand, murder is considered as not surely non-ethical because the assassin kills

the another one to reach his/her end by coercion against the victim’s will or end. This means that

the killer used the victim as just as a mean to achieve selfish goal.

Formula of Autonomy:

This formula is represented by Kant by the following statement:

“Act that your will can regard itself at the same time as making universal law through its

maxims”

This formula is so similar to the first formula, but Kant in formula of autonomy focused on

human beings as rational beings that able not just to follow the categorical imperative but also to

legislate it. This formula also stressed on the humanity and dignity of human as creatures who

are rational and able to make and legislate their own decisions and this what distinguish human

from non-human creatures.

Formula of (Kingdom of Ends):

This formula is represented by Kant by the following statement:

“act in accordance with the maxims of a member giving universal laws for a merely possible

kingdom of ends”
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The idea behind this formula is that all of us must follow only principles which are accepted

by a total society whose members are rational humans. This formula stresses on second formula

of autonomy that every human has the right to legislate his/her principle to follow according to

his/her ends, but what the principle that will be followed by all members of society is that which

is in accordance with ends of the whole community.

Application of Kant’s Moral Theory in Nursing

Kant’s moral theory has a considerable application in nursing profession, and this is

reflected mainly in instituting the code of ethics for nursing profession. The ethical principles in

the code of ethics represent the categorical imperatives in Kant’s moral theory that we as nurses

must follow in dealing with clients in different situations.

Kant in his theory stressed on specific ethical principles to be as obligations such as

beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, and autonomy. Furthermore, Autonomy as a principle is

reflected in a separate formula in Kant’s theory, and this explained as that Kant see the humans

as rational creatures and have the right to institute their own categorical imperatives which don’t

contradict with each other imperatives.

Duty based ethics is one of the most common approaches for dealing with ethical issues in

nursing discipline. Duty based ethics is derived mainly from the deontological theory of Kant

which evaluate people’s actions as good or not depending on the action itself regardless of

consequences of the action.

In this paper, I chose an ethical dilemma of euthanasia which faces nurses profusely in their

practice, and I will apply the first formula of Kant moral theory to explain how we as nurses can
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deal with same ethical dilemma and to make the most appropriate decisions about such

dilemmas.

Application of Kant Moral Theory to Euthanasia

Euthanasia is a process of giving an easy comfortable painless death for a person who is

suffering from an extreme complicated or painful situation. Euthanasia is one of the most

difficult decisions that nurses may face in their practice, because nurses have an ethical conflict

or dilemma to either respect patient’s desire to end his life or not to respect. Kant moral theory

provides a solution for this ethical dilemmas as subsequent discussion shows.

Now we will apply the first formula of Kant theory to determine if euthanasia can be

considered as ethical imperative or not. First of all, the patient must formulate his/her maxim

(rule) related to euthanasia as following statement:

“In case my status become so severely and painful, I give my right of life to the health care

provider to end it appropriately”

The second step is to generalize this maxim as a universalized law as the following

statement shows:

“Everyone can give his/her right of life to health care provider to end inappropriately, if his/her

status becomes so severe and painful”

It is so obvious that this maxim can’t be generalized to the whole world, because if

generalized, it may be intentionally abused by relatives, family, or even by health care providers.

So that, we can’t imagine the world with legislated maxim of euthanasia. it is terrible.
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Consequently, according to Kant. euthanasia can’t be considered as categorical imperative

since that can’t be generalized to the world, and we as health care providers must not conform to

euthanasia, and so the ethical dilemma arises from euthanasia is now resolved.

References

Atwell, J. (2012). Ends and Principles in Kant’s Moral Thought. Springer Science & Business

Media

Höffe, O. (2010). Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: The Foundation of Modern Philosophy.

Springer Science & Business Media

Manfred, K. (2001). Kant: A Biography. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Uleman, J. (2010). An Introduction to Kant's Moral Philosophy. Cambridge University Press