Kant’s Critique of Utilitarianism Essay

Kants critique of Utilitarianism is that it treats people as a means not as an ends in themselves. Since he is a deontologist he presumes that there is a universal moral imperative, certain ways in which we must act, no matter what our individual desires or needs or utility baron be. The savorless Imperative is an idea of reason. This knowledge is not derived from experience still rather, it is a priori. It also binds us and we only act in a certain way because of it. It is unconditional. It is the first principle of the moral truth and it applies to rational number and reasonable beings. Since we are sensuous creatures, we experience the moral law as a constraint. We urinate a tendency to do otherwise because we whitethorn come across moral dilemmas. Some epochs we know we should do something scarce we might reason against it. Kant believed that by putting something through the CI routine we would be able to see if it was moral or immoral.There are iv steps in this proced ure. First you formulate you subjective truism. permit us use the example that I will cheat on my philosophy testify because I didnt have enough cadence to study. The next step is to generalize this maxim, so for every time I dont have enough time to study I will cheat on my philosophy test. Then you universalize this maxim as if it were an instinct everyone will cheat on their philosophy test every time they dont have enough time to study. You so take this new law and join it with the old law and compare its affects. Now that I have put it through these four steps it is a given that people will study on their philosophy test every time they dont have enough time to study.This will take away the value of a good grade that a person that studies may receive. You therefore direct yourself two questions Can I coherently conceive of such a world? And if so, Can I sincerely will such a world? If at the end of all this, the maxim drops out and passes all these tests then it is okay to act on it because it is morally permissible. As seen in my example, it is not moral to cheat on a test because if everyone did it then it would devalue the good grades that people got that put work and effort into analyze for the test.Kant claims that acting from the categorical Imperative reveals to us our freedom and dignity, by this he means that Dignity brings about your morality which is what makes you part of the soil of ends. It frees us from our senses by making us realize our own nature. The CategoricalImperative reveals what is moral and immoral and therefore we are able pick up the two and this allows us to be autonomous and if you are autonomous then you are free.