Kant - 3rd Formulation of Categorical Imperative...please?

ohyeahoh

I just can't get my head round what it actually means..anyone? :s-smilie:

Reply 1

Kilgore Trout

Just the third one? I'll try...

The general quote is something like:
3. "Always act as though you are a legislating member in the universal kingdom of ends"

Points 1 and 2 refer to willing your actions to be universalised and treating people as ends in themselves, rather than means to ends. Point 3 just says to act, in everything you do and every 'free' action you make, to picture yourself as a person writing the law for a new kingdom, in which everybody must treat everybody else as ends in themselves.

It's more of a point 1 + point 2 therefore point 3, than a point in its own right.

You can't therefore 'legislate' hypocritically, such as 'I'm going to lie but just this once and other people shouldn't lie and I won't lie again'. You also can't legislate to not make people ends, such as 'I can lie because everybody lies' (the lies you tell therefore making people around you means to an end), because by legislating in that way you make it acceptable for all others to act in that way, and if all people acted in that way then life would become crazy and intolerable and you wouldn't ever be able to trust anybody, because they could be lying.

Reply 2

ohyeahoh

Ohh thankyou :biggrin:

Yeah I understand one and two I just didn't get what three was on about

Reply 3

mfsykes

Original post by kilgore trout

just the third one? I'll try...

The general quote is something like:
3. "always act as though you are a legislating member in the universal kingdom of ends"

points 1 and 2 refer to willing your actions to be universalised and treating people as ends in themselves, rather than means to ends. Point 3 just says to act, in everything you do and every 'free' action you make, to picture yourself as a person writing the law for a new kingdom, in which everybody must treat everybody else as ends in themselves.

It's more of a point 1 + point 2 therefore point 3, than a point in its own right.

You can't therefore 'legislate' hypocritically, such as 'i'm going to lie but just this once and other people shouldn't lie and i won't lie again'. You also can't legislate to not make people ends, such as 'i can lie because everybody lies' (the lies you tell therefore making people around you means to an end), because by legislating in that way you make it acceptable for all others to act in that way, and if all people acted in that way then life would become crazy and intolerable and you wouldn't ever be able to trust anybody, because they could be lying.