The Categorical Imperative (Immanuel Kant, Groundwork, sec. 2) - A Course In Ethics

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're welcome! I'm definitely not a Kantian myself, but I do enjoy reading, thinking about, and teaching his works

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're welcome -- I'm happy to hear that!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Steiner -- if you mean Rudolph Steiner -- is definitely a blast from the past for me! I knew quite a few of his contemporary followers a while back. At one time, I was an avowed Nietzscheian, so I think I can understand the attraction. Kierkegaard, I still admire greatly, but more and more for what he did in thinking through the figures of Socrates and Christ in depth

[@GregoryBSadler]

that's very nice to read -- particularly given how long the video ended up being!

[@GregoryBSadler]

There's a video specifically on that in my Core Concepts videos

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, if you read Kant -- and I really strongly suggest you go to the Groundwork and read it through -- there is a difference between ethics and law as such, but they are very closely connected.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, Kant is pretty convinced that duties are never going to contradict each other -- they'd better not, since it's contradiction itself which we use in the CI to determine what is or is not in accordance with duty, right? Start by taking the case, determining what your maxim is, and seeing whether it can pass the first formulation of the CI. Then apply the second formulation of the CI to the case. Write what you figure out in a comment, and we'll take that interesting case from there

[@cihuacoatl1887]

Great video. I got a question. What would be a reason to not date a married woman with kids? Im not relligious. Whats the reason for not screwing people you dont know? Thanks.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Thanks. Yep, not much point in just giving them the straight Kant without connecting it up to their own lives, experiences, interests. Of course, that goes directly against Kant's own advice about how moral philosophy ought to be taught -- but I'm not a Kantian myself, so I feel no need to follow his own pedagogical instructions

[@GregoryBSadler]

In a word, No. If you read Kant's Groundwork, the CI does not compel choice in the way you seem to think, in a seemingly mechanistic manner. It tells you what you ought to do. Human beings are fundamentally different from other beings in that we have the capacity not only to follow laws of nature, but to impose laws on ourselves. For Kant, the CI is the most fundamental form of the second kind. I've another video, over in my Core Concept playlist, discussing imperatives.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, if it seems to you that way, Kant must be wrong, I suppose. Good thing you cleared that up.

[@TheSteinmetzen]

I now have a better understanding and respect for Kant. Thank you.

[@GregoryBSadler]

+C. Nathan Chavez You're very welcome

[@achammer]

Thanks you videos have helped me with my philosophy course

[@GregoryBSadler]

You've misunderstood the concepts here. The hypothetical imperative would be something like: if I want to do well in the class, then I need to study -- so I need to study. The last part is the imperative part.

[@rickcotc]

This is worth the time