Onora O'Neill on Kant

Slides for an Introduction to Philosophy course, discussion O'Neill's text: "Kantian Approaches to Some Famine Problems." These slides discuss the second form of Kant's Categorical Imperative, the formula of humanity as en end in itself.

philosophy
ethics
morality
Kant
O'Neill

Transcript

1. O’NEILL ON KANT
   AND POVERTY
   PHIL 102, UBC
   Christina Hendricks
   O’Neill, “Kantian Approaches to Some Famine Problems”
   

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2. Second form of Kant’s
   C.I.
   The form of “humanity as an end in itself”
   2
   

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3. “
   “Act in such a way as to treat
   humanity, whether in your own
   person or in that of anyone else,
   always as an end and never merely as
   a means”
   (Kant, Early Modern Texts version of Groundwork, p. 9)
   3
   

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4. 4
   Treating people as means to
   our own ends
   Buying and selling Teaching & learning
   

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5. “We use others as mere means if what we do
   reflects some maxim to which they could not
   in principle consent” (O’Neill 260).
   5
   Treating others merely as
   means to our ends
   Lying
   promise
   Coercion, violence
   Deception
   

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6. Not only avoid treating others as mere
   means, but also
   ▷ “sustain and extend one another’s
   capacities for autonomous action” (O’Neill
   262)
   ▷ So we should sometimes “support one
   another’s ends and activities to some
   extent” (262) (can’t do it all the time!)
   6
   Treating people as ends in
   themselves
   

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7. Justice & Beneficence
   Not treating others as
   mere means to ends
   “perfect duties”
   Treating others as
   ends in themselves
   “imperfect duties”
   7
   

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8. 8
   Why is this a form of the CI?
   Humanity has intrinsic, unconditional value
   “Act in such a way as to treat
   humanity, whether in your
   own person or in that of
   anyone else, always as an
   end and never merely as a
   means” (Kant 9)
   

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9. “Things that are preferred have only
   conditional value, for if the preferences …
   didn’t exist, their object would be
   worthless” (Kant 8).
   Rational beings “are not merely subjective
   ends whose existence … has value for us,
   but [their] existence is an end in itself” [and
   so has unconditional value] (9).
   9
   Kant on unconditional value of
   rational beings
   Why?
   

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10. Returning to Kant’s four
    examples
    Using the second form of C.I. this time
    10
    

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11. Suicide (9)
    Maxim: to avoid pain
    using the absolute worth
    of oneself as a rational
    being as a means to
    something of conditional
    worth (avoiding pain)
    o Perfect duty/Justice
    11
    

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12. Lying promise
    Kant (9): If A makes lying
    promise to B,
    “B can’t possibly assent
    to A’s acting against him
    in this way, so he can’t
    contain in himself the
    end of this action”
    o Perfect duty/Justice
    12
    

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13. Developing
    Talents
    Kant (10): neglecting our
    talents “might perhaps
    be consistent with the
    preservation of humanity
    as an end in itself but not
    with the furtherance of
    that end”
    o Imperfect
    duty/Beneficence
    13
    

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14. Helping others
    Kant (10): “For a positive
    harmony with humanity
    as an end in itself, what is
    required is that everyone
    positively tries to further
    the ends of others as far
    as he can”
    o Imperfect
    duty/Beneficence
    14
    

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15. ▷ Pick one action that you think is immoral
    ▷ Use either CI (1) or CI (2) and see what it would
    say about that action/maxim
    ○ CI (1): form of universal law; universalize your maxim
    ○ CI (2): treating people as mere means to ends? Treating
    them as ends in themselves?
    ▷ Can you think of an example where the
    Categorical Imperative (in either form) would
    give you an answer you think is incorrect?
    15
    Try using C.I. (1) or (2)
    

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16. http://is.gd/phil102kant
    16
    Questions/comments
    

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17. Kant and poverty
    O’Neill on a Kantian approach to helping
    those in poverty around the world
    17
    

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18. 18
    Justice & Beneficence re:
    helping those in poverty
    Not treating others as
    mere means to ends
    • Examples?
    Treating others as ends in
    themselves
    • “sustain and extend others’
    capacities for autonomous
    action” (O’Neill 262)
    • Examples?
    

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19. What is
    paternalism?
    Utilitarians and
    Kantians on
    paternalism re:
    helping others
    19
    Against paternalism
    

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20. ▷ 2nd form of C.I. —humanity as an end in
    itself
    ○ Justice/perfect duties: avoid treating others as
    mere means to ends
    ○ Beneficence/imperfect duties: sometimes
    support ends of others, promote their capacity
    for autonomous action
    ▷ Unconditional value of humanity
    ▷ Kantian approach to poverty:
    beneficence in helping others—focus on
    autonomy 20
    Summary
    

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21. Credits
    Special thanks to all the people who made and released
    these awesome resources for free:
    ▷ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival licensed CC BY
    ▷ Photos
    ▷ Grave image licensed CC0 from pixabay.com
    ▷ Money image licensed CC0 from pixabay.com
    ▷ Cat image by Kevin Ianeselli on Unsplash (see license)
    ▷ Homeless person image by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash (see
    license)
    ▷ Adult & child image by Photo by Sebastián León Prado on
    Unsplash (see license)
    ▷ Icons not credited were purchased with a subscription
    to The Noun Project
    21
    

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