Week 4 post 2

 Contrary to utilitarian thinkers such as Jeremy Bentham, Emmanuel Kant raises yet another perception of what is morally right and wrong that is rooted in the fact that we all have a certain dignity that commands our respect because humans are all rational beings. He believes humans are all autonomous beings capable of reason and good will. While he admits that humans do indeed seek pleasure and avoid pain, he does not believe that those two feelings are humans’ sovereign masters which was a belief of benthams. Kant has a stringent and demanding idea of freedom because he believes that when we seek after pleasure we aren’t really acting freely because we are acting as slaves to those appetites and impulses. What many other philosophies fail to consider is Kant's idea of what makes an action morally worthy. Kant's idea of what makes an action morally worthing does not rest in the consequences or the results that flow from those actions rather the morality lies in the motives and quality of the will or intention. For example if a shopkeeper were dealing with a young inexperienced shopper who they knew could shortchange, there are two moral routes that could approach avoiding this. One route is that the shopkeeper should not shortchange the shopper even if the shopper would not know because to short change is wrong and of ill intention. The other approach would be not to shortchange the customer with the notion that word could get out that he shortchanged the customer and the store's reputation would be damaged. Both of these scenarios end up making the morally correct decision but only the first approach has any moral worth because moral worth is determined in the intention of the action.

Many modern philosophers, whether it is a recognized or unrecognized bias, have the aim to excuse the exploitation and immoral acts of human kind. This ranges from the eurocentric modern philosophy of enclosing land to using a ‘justice’ system that blames and capitalizes human beings for the very faults of the justice system and human nature. There will most likely never be a perfect philosophy because philosophy is inherently tainted by human imperfection, but that is why Immanuel Kant and others like him are such critical thinkers. They are taking the steps to assess morality with consideration to human nature which is far less elitist than many previous philosophers who believed they were above others on a moral level. Kant does not place morality in desires or a higher power, rather he places it in humans which has led to a widespread adherence and belief in his thought process. Kant recognizes no matter how ‘morally right’ someone might be, that they are still a human being capable of reason, and hence makes humans all equal.