Duty (OCR A-Level Religious Studies): Revision Notes

Duty

Context

• Immanuel Kant was a German mathematician and scientist who later turned to philosophy.
• He was an unorthodox Christian, who relied on rationalism and not revelation, so his theories are not rooted in religion.
• He believed that if people thought about ethics rationally they would realise that there were some moral laws that all rational beings had to obey, simply because it made logical sense.
• Kant believed that the ability to reason is innate and exists in all humans. Kant was aiming to find objective, universal morality seeing as he saw reason as universal.
• Kant believed in A Priori knowledge based on reason and logic, he argued that our senses can be wrong and all A Posteriori knowledge is merely a perception based on senses.

Kant on Duty

Duty: Humans act from moral law not from their desired out comes.

What is our duty?

Kantian Ethics are deontological which means that they are focused on the idea of duty, which he considers to be the obligation to do the right thing. The motivation for duty

• The motive of an action is important, an action is good if done for the right reason.
• The ethical approach is absolute, as humans should do the right thing, simply because it is the right thing to do.

Goodwill

• Kant's Groundwork states: "The only thing that is unconditionally good is goodwill."
• Kant thought that the only thing that can be called good without qualification is good will which can be achieved summum bonum, the highest good.
• 'The goodwill' is Kant's term for acting in accordance with the moral law and out of a motive of duty rather than for pleasure or to achieve an outcome.
• The goodwill is intrinsically good and unlike other goods such as pleasure or wealth
• The only acceptable reason for putting goodwill into action is a sense of duty.

Duty Verses Inclination: most of our actions are done out of inclination as we are acting out of self-interest, but no one deserves any credit for pursuing their own interests as it is just fulfilling our animalistic nature.

📝Examples of what are not duties:

• Committing suicide

• Lusting after people or things

• Being drunk

• Being greedy 📝Examples of what duties we have to ourselves:

• To be generous, grateful, and sympathetic

• To respect people as individuals and equals 📝 The example of the murderer at the door

This analogy demonstrates a common criticism of Kant.

The story details a murderer knocking on your door, asking if you had seen someone.

You can either lie and save someone's life which Kant prohibits or you can tell the truth and a life is taken.

This story demonstrates the key issue with Kant which prioritises duty for the sake of it as opposed to what is realistic and good.

Strengths of Kant's idea of duty

• It is clear and easy to follow as it's logical and based on reason, making it accessible to everyone for Kant humans are rational beings.
• It is absolutist as it is deontological nature making it easy to apply as morality doesn't depend on motives which can be subjective.
• It is a deontological approach so morality doesn't depend on consequences that can not known
• Kant draws a clear distinction between duty and preference which means all people are treated equally.
• Kant emphasises the difference between duty and inclination ensuring that ethical practice is not based on reason or subjective emotion
• W D Ross claimed we should take duties Prima Facie (first sight), meaning that we will always know what to do.

Weakness' of using Duty to make moral decisions

• Kantian ethics is inflexible due to being deontological.
• It disregards consequences and, at times goes against human nature as it is human nature to consider the consequences before acting.
• It can be impractical to suggest disregarding consequences for example in the story of the axe murderer, human nature would cause us to lie as we perceive the consequence of not lying would be death.
• Humans need to be motivated to act, motivation is an emotion so according to Kant this is not allowed. However, if motivation doesn't take place in decision-making, humans are acting for the sake of it as opposed to doing it for the right reasons.
• Kantian ethics is seen by some to be abstract as such making it not easily applicable to moral dilemmas.
• Satre: in some circumstances duties conflict, he gives the example of a man who has to choose between his sick mother versus going to war for his country Hitler.