[UUPoly-L] Digressing into Kant (was: Mass. minister lays down the gauntlet)

["Desmond Ravenstone" <gentlemonster@lycos.com>]

   "What if everybody did it?" is not the only way (or necessarily the best
   way) to decide how you should behave.

   I think that particular question has dribbled in from Kant and his
   "Categorical Imperative" -- however, apparently Kant proposed a variety of
   questions we can ask ourselves, not just that one -- and Kant has his
   critics as well.

   This is just an aside.? I know that "what if everybody did it?" is a
   popular way of approaching ethics -- but it is not the only way.

   True on all counts, Bill. This is a simplified variant of one of Kant's
   formulation of his categorical imperative: "Act only on that maxim whereby
   thou canst at the same time will that it should become a universal law."

   The problems with that formulation alone have filled many a philosophy
   book. How do you determine what maxims or principles should be universal
   laws, without reverting to that "inferior" form of ethics (or expediency)
   which Kant referred to as "hypothetical imperatives" (ie, obey traffic
   rules if you want to minimize the chance of being in an accident)? How can
   you be sure that a given maxim can indeed be universally applied? And so
   on and so forth.

   Of course, many who find Kant appealing turn to his more poetic expression
   of the categorical imperative: "So act to treat humanity, whether in thine
   own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never
   as a means only." Fair enough, but ... now try applying both formulations
   of the categorical imperative at the same time. In short, try applying and
   enforcing maxims as universal laws without reducing human beings to mere
   means towards that end.

   Desmond Ravenstone

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