Kant argues that each of us has certain fundamental rights, and respecting them is more important than maximising the utility. He rejects the idea that morality depends on the actions’ consequences. Our actions are considered moral only when we do what we have to do, when we do something only because it must be done. Kant gives at example the owner of a shop that doesn’t deceive its customer because he considers that this action will make his business suffer, if the customer will find out that the owner has been unfair. According to Kant, the owner’s behaviour has no moral value, since he did what he had to do because of the wrong reason. Kant states that out actions have moral value only if we succeed to ignore our personal interest and act out of duty. Professor Sandel gives a real example: a child who has won a school competition, but afterwards admitted, in from of the jury, that he actually did wrong the last part of the competition. Using this example and also other, Sandel explains Kant’s test of determining if an action is truly moral: the principle that lays behind our actions must became an universal law that can be used by any other person who wants to act.

Workshop programme:

17:00 – 18:00 Proiectia episodului  Mind Your Motive | The Supreme Principle of Morality

1815-2000 Free discussion

Location: Splaiul Independentei nr. 17, Bl. 101, etaj 4, apt. 30