Time to give Kant a proper hearing

Kant has fallen out of fashion particularly with young people because they often agree with the writer Robert Arrington that Kant’s is an over-stern ethics of duty. But I think we need to look at Kant in a new light and acknowledge there is much about Kant’s theory which can transform our own thinking about ethical issues.

1. Kantian ethics resonates with us.

The principle of universalisability is something everyone can understand – it is simple and asks us to apply an imaginative leap to put ourselves in another’s shoes. It appeals to the shared reasonableness of human beings and even a child can understand it. When parents say “how would you feel if I did that to you” they are teaching their kids a Kantian principle. As Roger Scruton once commented, Kantian ethics is very much what most people associate with an ethical statement.

2. Kantian ethics isn’t as deontological as you might think.

Textbooks don’t really help here because they tend to encourage us to pigeon-hole philosophers without really thinking it through. Keith Ward wrote an article in 1971 arguing that we should reclassify Kant as a teleological theory. Unfortunately we have to be careful if we write this in an exam unless we justify it with the skill and insight of Professor Ward. But we can say this: in order to make the imaginative leap of universalising we have to imagine the consequences of everyone modifying their car, fitting a loud exhaust and driving at twice the speed limit through my village. One consequence, of course, is that I would be dead, as the exit from my drive is completely blind! That is a teleological leap of imagination – it’s looking at ends, not rules.

3. Kantian ethics is revolutionary.

Instead of thinking of grim puritans dressed in black wagging a finger at us and muttering about duty, I believe we should re-imagine Kant the radical. He is saying to us: take responsibility for yourself. You are a self-legislator; autonomous is the word he uses. We have the power to realise the moral law for ourselves. What he also says is this: ignore peer-group pressure, what the Pope says, and the guilt you might feel when you think you’re doing something your mum disapproves of. Work it through in your own mind. In this sense Kant asks us to put aside our feelings. The duty for duty’s sake becomes a determination not to be deflected from the summum bonum – the greatest good, and to give myself the dignity of being a free human being.

And what is this summum bonum? It is you and me committing ourselves to build a better world by dropping a small drop of goodness – obedience to the categorical imperative with a courageous consistency – and noting the difference it makes when we never lie, cheat, steal, break promises, or duck one friend’s party invitation because something more attractive turns up.

Drop by drop we build a different world – a better world – and the more we do it, and the more people are converted to this cause of reason, the more peaceful and happy that world will be.

For a detailed explanation of Kant and Natural Law, you can read my book by the same title.

Cartoon © Rebecca Dyer