Application of Kant's Categorical Imperative to a Case

Answer

Application of Kant's Categorical Imperative to a Case

Normative ethics are foundational propositions used in decisions making, especially when people are faced with a dilemma. Kant’s categorical imperative provides a way in which people can evaluate their moral actions which result in the making of moral judgments. Kant argues that, by nature, people are expected to follow the common law which is not only universal and impartial, but also rational. The categorical imperative thus seeks to formulate the criteria by which any of our actions can be tested for universality, impartiality, and rationality. One of the categorical imperatives expressed by Kant (2014) is that people should act according to the maxim that they would wish other rational people to follow as if that was the universal law. Additionally, Kant proposes that there would be the perfect duties which people are obliged to do all the time and the imperfect duties which people are not expected to follow all the time. This paper provides the analysis of a case selected using the Kant’s Categorical Imperative.

Analysis of a case using Kant's Categorical Imperative

            The case selected is that of the Sheriff’s Department in Virginia asking its police officers to pose as customers and solicit paid sex so that they could obtain vital evidence for the conviction of Moon Spa, an alleged perpetrator of prostitution. Applying Kant’s categorical imperative, people should cat to the maxim that they should wish other people to follow their actions as if they were rational and universal (Kant, 2014). In such a case, the police officers were expected to act in a manner that they would have wished other people to follow as universal law. However, clearly, the officers would not have expected that other people would engage in paid sex as a universal law. As such, based on the Kant’s categorical imperative, then the actions of the police officers were immoral.

            My position on the immorality of the actions of the police officers from the Sheriff’s Department in Virginia can be justified on various grounds. One of those is that the actions were not universal as by virtue of being rational, most people would not act precisely in the same way.  The actions of the police officers did not reflect the dignity and autonomy of every being. In specific, the officers failed to respect their dignity by engaging in paid sex. Additionally, they failed to exercise an autonomy because they were asked by the Department to undertake such actions and did not this do so out of their own volition. Such grounds justify my position that the actions were immoral based on Kant’s categorical imperative.

Explanation of how I would approach the case

            I would approach the case from the position of a virtue ethicist. In specific, I believe that an action is right if a virtuous person would do the same in the same circumstances. My belief is that actions should be person-based as opposed to action-oriented. Notably, virtual ethicists are more concerned with the assessment of the character of a person as opposed to the goodness or badness of their actions (Das, 2015). As such, my concern is not on the actions that the police officers took, but rather their character. A virtuous person would not engage in paid sex as they respect themselves. Additionally, just like virtue ethicists, I believe that there is a common set of values that all human beings would benefit from. Some of these include respecting our dignity and respecting ourselves. The police officers did not follow those common set of virtues which demands people to be faithful to their partners and not engage in paid sex.

            My approach of refusing to engage in paid sex is based on the responses that I provided to my Virtual Philosopher exercise in Week 1. In specific, in the exercise, I demonstrated that lying is ‘always’ wrong and killing innocent people is ‘always’ wrong. As such, I believe that there are some common set of values which should guide human actions. My approach to the case does not differ from my thinking at the beginning of this course. In specific, in the beginning, I believed that human actions should be virtuous and that people should act in a similar manner as a virtuous person which is the same case now.

In conclusion, Kant’s categorical imperative requires people to act according to the maxim that they should wish other people to follow their actions as if they were a universal law. Applying this imperative on the case of the two police officers from the Sheriff’s Department in Virginia, the police officers did not act wishing that other people would follow their actions. I would approach the case by refusing to engage in paid sex as I agree with the virtue ethicists on the point that actions should be judged based on the moral character of a person as opposed to the consequences of their actions.