Pol ytech ni c Un iver s ity of the Phil ip p ine s

COL L EG E of ART S and L ETTER S

D EPARTMENT o f H UMA NI TIES an d PHI L OS OPHY
S ta. Mes a, Manila

4th PRESENTATION

ETHICS
GEED 10093
JOEY S. PINALAS
IMMANUEL KANT

THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON

A large part of Kant’s work addresses the question “What can we know?”

The answer, if it can be stated simply, is that our knowledge is constrained to

mathematics and the science of the natural, empirical world.

It is impossible, Kant argues, to extend knowledge to the supersensible realm

of speculative metaphysics.

The reason that knowledge has these constraints, Kant argues, that the mind
plays an active role in constituting the features of experience and limiting the
mind’s access only to the empirical realm of space and time.
IMMANUEL KANT
THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON
Kant responded to his predecessors by arguing against the Empiricists
that the mind is not a blank slate that is written upon by the
empirical world,

And by rejecting the Rationalists’ notion that a pure, a priori

knowledge of a mind-independent world was possible.

Reason itself is structured with forms of experience and categories

that give a phenomenal and logical structure to any possible object of
empirical experience.
IMMANUEL KANT
THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON
These categories cannot be circumvented to get at a mind-independent world,
but they are necessary for experience of spatio-temporal objects with their
causal behavior and logical properties.

These two theses constitute Kant’s famous transcendental idealism and empirical
realism.

Thus metaphysics for Kant concerns a priori knowledge, or knowledge whose

justification does not depend on experience; and he associates a priori
knowledge with reason. The project of the Critique is to examine whether, how,
and to what extent human reason is capable of a priori knowledge.
IMMANUEL KANT
THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON

NOUMENON
REASON The thing in itself

PHENOMENON
According to Kant, it is vital always to distinguish
between the distinct realms of phenomena and The thing for itself
noumena. Phenomena are the appearances, which
constitute our experience; noumena are the
(presumed) things themselves, which constitute
reality
IMMANUEL KANT
EPISTEMOLOGY
Kant argues that necessity and universality of scientific knowledge are
guaranteed by the laws through which the categories of the mind
become effective. They are the forms of all possible knowledge and
are not limited to some specific content.

TWO KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE

A PRIORI is a knowledge that comes from the power of reasoning based on
self-evident truths.

A POSTERIORI is a knowledge based solely on experience or personal

observation
IMMANUEL KANT

TWO KINDS OF JUDGEMENT

ANALYTIC Analytic propositions are true or not true solely

by virtue of their meaning,

In logic. : a judgment in which what is predicated is

already implied in the subject of the predication —
opposed to synthetic judgment.

SYNTHETIC Synthetic propositions' truth, if any, derives

from how their meaning relates to the world. ...
IMMANUEL KANT

THREE SUPPOSITION ON ETHICS

• That man has Freewill/Freedom

• That there is life after Death

• That God Exist.

IMMANUEL KANT
THE GOOD WILL
Good will represents the effort of rational beings to do what they ought to
do, rather than to act from inclination or self-interest.

The good will is not good because it achieves good results, but simply by
virtue of volition, that is, it is good in itself.

A good will is one that acts for the sake of duty. Human actions have inner
moral worth only if they are performed from duty.

True destination must be to produce will, not merely good as a means to

something else but good in itself, for which reason was absolutely
necessary.
IMMANUEL KANT
CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE

THE GOOD WILL

REASON
HUMAN ACTION CONSEQUENCE

GOOD ACTS GOOD RESULT

BAD ACTS BAD RESULT

IMMANUEL KANT

CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE

• a moral law that is unconditional or absolute for all agents,

the validity or claim of which does not depend on any
ulterior motive or end.

• it is only the basis for determining our duties.

• It is the product of human rationality. Reason prescribes duty,

and the moral law holds whether or not people actually follow it.
IMMANUEL KANT

PRINCIPLE OF UNIVERSALITY
Act only on that maxim whereby you can will at the same that it should become
a universal law

PRINCIPLE OF HUMANITY
So act as to treat Humanity whether your own person or in that of another
never as a mean but always as a end

PRINCIPLE OF AUTONOMY
Moral laws are not imposed from outside. They are laws coming from man’s
practical reason. “Laws which man impose upon himself
PRAGMATIC ETHICS

This is an ethical theory which holds that the morality of human acts
depends on consequences or results.

All human action is right, if it leads to good consequences, wrong if it

leads to bad consequences.

According to this theory, no act is intrinsically right or wrong, good or

bad, outside of consequences.

Human actions, in other words are judged according to their “utility”

or usefulness or result.
PRAGMATIC ETHICS
PRAGMATIC THEORY OF TRUTH
Pragmatism is sometimes called “Instrumentalism” for the reason that it considers
ideas, hypotheses and theories as mere instrument or means for solving concrete
problems.

For pragmatist, truth value as well as the goodness of any idea, conduct or belief
lies in their utility or usefulness in contributing to personal and social progress.

Thus as a philosophy, Pragmatism ignore all theories and speculation which have
no bearing on the practical struggles of life.
PRAGMATIC ETHICS
AXIOLOGY

Does not believe on standard permanent and external values. Man, being
a part of society, the consequences of his actions are either good or bad.
If the consequences are worthwhile, then the value of the action is
proven to be good.
PRAGMATIC ETHICS

SUBJECT HUMAN ACTION CONSEQUENCE

Good Result

Bad Result
PRAGMATIC ETHICS
WILLIAM JAMES
Pragmatism was popularized by William James (1842-1910). This
American philosopher claims that an idea, theory or dispute, has a
significance only if it moves us to satisfactory results.

“Everything in the world is relative, the worth of ideas, doctrine,

principles, and practice depends on how they function in the given
situation. If they work well they maybe judge true, good, right, and
beautiful, etc..; if they do not work well, they may be judged false,
evil, wrong, ugly, etc…”
PRAGMATIC ETHICS

JOHN DEWEY
Dewey views intelligence as a tool in the struggle for existence. The whole of
reality is a perpetual flux. The world is a realm of insurgent changes so that
human and society are always in the state of growth and progress.

For John Dewey, the supreme good is the growth of the individual and progress
of the society towards freedom and cooperative and democratic living. The
ultimate values are not in the supernatural realm, but in the visible world of
nature and human associations. In these terms, the standard of human conduct
is whatever contributes to the realization of a better world.
PRAGMATIC ETHICS
Accordingly; there are three ways by which man can cope with the problem of adjustment.

First by accommodation, that is, when we can encounter bad conditions which we cannot
be altered, the wisest thing to do is to welcome them, and thus inured or conditioned in
those inexorable circumstances, we shall find life’s travail less trying.

Second by reconstruction, that is, we must try to alter existing conditions to suit our needs.
We must not forget that, through “creative intelligence” we can change the world into a
better place to live in.

And third by religiosity, that is, to transpose the beliefs in supernatural beings into loyalty
to values which can contribute to the progress of humanity towards greater freedom and
happiness in the here and now.
PRAGMATIC ETHICS
JOHN STUART MILL
“The greatest good of all men or the greatest happiness of the greatest number of
people.”

The ethics of Pragmatism has, it appears, a socialist dimension.

What it sought is not simply the happiness of the individual, but also the welfare of
the society at large.

Indeed, if man is human because of his association with others, then, he owes it to the
community to always seek or work for “the greatest happiness of the greatest number
of people”.

The practical implication of pragmatic morality is, contrary to some misconception,

that the interest or happiness is identical with the happiness of the greatest number.
WHEN IN
DOUBT…
READ!!!
ACTIVITY QUESTION
Module 7: IMMANUEL KANT
ACTIVITY
1. Explain Kant’s ethics of universality.
2. Discuss thoroughly how Kant arrived at formulating the categorical
imperative. Why is it necessary to establish ethical theory in the way Kant
formulated it?

Module 8: PRAGMATIC ETHICS

ACTIVITY
1. Accordingly; there are three ways by which man can cope with the
problem of adjustment. What are those?
2. Why Pragmatism is sometimes called “Instrumentalism”?