For those of you without (or with) religion should read Immanuel Kant’s “Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals.” In it he posits a philosophy known as the Categorical Imperative in which it sets a standard to judge whether a person’s actions are right. It covers most everything and is still quite hard for me to grasp.
This is the summary of the CI. It is broken down into 3 maxims as follows.
- “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” Meaning: The first premise is that a person acts morally if his or her conduct would, without condition, be the “right” conduct for any person in similar circumstances.
- “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never merely as a means to an end.” Meaning: Conduct is “right” if it treats others as ends in themselves and not as means to an end.
- “Therefore, every rational being must so act as if he were through his maxim always a legislating member in the universal kingdom of ends.” Meaning: A person acts morally when he or she acts as if his or her conduct was establishing a universal law governing others in similar circumstances.
The simplest way to remember it is usually by the first maxim above. The others help deal with all scenarios of morality plus there’s a concept of perfect and imperfect duty to help as well. I won’t break those down here but a link is provided below.
“Duty is the necessity to act out of reverence for the moral law set by the categorical imperative. Because the consequences of an act are not the source of its moral worth, the source must be the maxim under which the act is performed, irrespective of all aspects or faculties of desire. Thus, an act can have moral content if, and only if, it is carried out solely with regard to a sense of moral duty; it is not enough that the act be consistent with duty, it must be carried out in the name of fulfilling a duty.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorical_imperative
What brings me to this post? Just shit I’ve seen in life which makes me shake my head. These are the principles I try to live by. It’s how I can look myself in the mirror if I have to make a decision that is right but could hurt a friend. Hopefully I won’t ever be in that position.
I’ll leave with one of my favorite (related) quotes: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke.
