Immanuel Kant, Groundwork | Means, Ends, Value, and Human Dignity | Philosophy Core Concepts

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This is a video in my new Core Concepts series -- designed to provide students and lifelong learners a brief discussion focused on one main concept from a classic philosophical text and thinker.
This Core Concept video focuses on Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, sec. 2 and examines Kant's discussion about means, ends, and the human capacity to will, i.e. to set itself ends and to determine means to those ends. Examining how we value means and ends helps us to understand what sort of value a person has (or ought to have), which for Kant turns out to be something radically different than the value we ascribe to objects.
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#Kant #deontology #ethics #Groundwork #Metaphysics #morals #theory #Lecture #Reason #Will #humannature
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[@GregoryBSadler]

New Core Concept video -- last one on Kant for a while. If you've got a hankering for more Kant, here's my 17-video playlist of lecture videos on Kant's Groundwork kzbin.info/aero/PL3CAC6CDCA5C5765E

[@honeytea7652]

Your an amazing teacher! great explanation, love your energy. Thank you!

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're very welcome!

[@Fuyons9999]

Awesome video, definitely different but it will be nice to have bite sized explanations when I'm short on time.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad you enjoy it -- if you want longer Kant ones, there's always the Kant playlist

[@BUGZYLUCKS]

I enjoy your teaching style.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Thanks! That's good -- because it's really the only one I've got at my disposal, these days. . .

[@thelcosmith5282]

I realize you can more or less question this way ad infinitum (nihilists often do), but why should we value or take seriously human dignity by appealing to such unique capacities as setting ends for ourselves to will? How is one's capacity for moral determination evidence of their intrinsic moral value? Or why are we morally obliged to respect them in light of that fact?

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, there's something a bit odd about that line of questioning. Why not? If we're going to find human dignity's ground, I think it's going to be in "unique capacities" or their implications somewhere. So, the Kantian answer the the other questions -- you see this developed pretty clearly in the text -- is that this just is what moral value does reside in. Kant takes this portion of his project to be clarifying moral concepts, like duty, willing, end, good will, etc. At a certain point, in that sort of analysis, you're going to hit bedrock. I'm not a Kantian myself, but I see no problem in saying that capacity to (potentially) set ends is something intrinsic to human beings. Then again, I'm rather old-fashioned and believe in things like a "faculty of will"

[@HumorMe118]

Dr. Sadler, I am curious how you think Kant would regard something like slavery in relation to his belief on rational beings' dignity and irreplaceability.

[@redlemur7944]

I’m going to study philosophy because on my spare time to help me improve my other scientific progress. But I feel like sentience is an object of concern in this philosophy. It’s awesome though. I’m a vegan and I would love to see philosophy that covers this or I will create it on my own after I keep reading and understanding philosophy. Thanks for the video because I was getting frustrated trying to understand what Kant means by and end and he said it like 6372827 times in the little essay I read 😂.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad it was useful for you

[@kolyay.4329]

“Pythagoras and his many followers practiced vegetarianism for several reasons, mainly due to religious and ethical objections. Pythagoras believed all living beings had souls. Animals were no exception, so meat and fish were banished from his table. Strangely enough, he also banished a vegetable that has a place of honor on most vegetarian menus today, the humble bean. His followers were forbidden to eat or even touch beans, because he thought beans and humans were created from the same material. Fava beans were especially bad, as they have hollow stems that could allow the souls of the dead to travel up from the soil into the growing beans.” www.google.com/amp/s/www.history.com/.amp/news/beans-and-greens-the-history-of-vegetarianism

[@shanevan1]

You seem to be suggesting that every human being has value and dignity. And you rightly ask *"Where does it come from"*. According to Kant apparantly your ability to make rational and moral choices makes you worthy of respect and a valuable being with intrinsic worth? This would mean that a mentally deficient human being does not have value and dignity worthy of respect. It is basically a description of mankind's instrumental value: Because we can rationalize we are valuable, dignified and have worth. But are we intrinsically valuable as mankind? Intuition would say we do, but I feel Kant here fails to explain what makes us intrinsically and thus essentially valuable.

[@GregoryBSadler]

You probably want to read Kant. . .

[@lalo-lz8lk]

Christine Korsgaard deals with this problem in Kant's theory, and argues that being rational allows you to be a source of normativity, but that it does not follow from this that reason is necessary to force the generation of norms. It is very interesting because this means that animals can also be a source of normativity. He even argues that there are actions that we condemn not for being an assault on our rational nature, but on our animal nature.