Kant argues that any action cannot be moral unless the motives are moral. For each of these philosophies, the question of living the "good life" is an intricate part of the belief system. For the Utilitarians, living a life that benefited as many people as possible, in essence, a life that caused the greatest widespread good results would be considered a life of virtue. For Kant, the only moral action is one that is done entirely because of obligation. He also makes the distinction between motives, saying that an action can be "in accord with duty" and still be immoral.
The conscious decision is good in itself because the decision was not inclined by any desire but the duty to do what is intrinsically good. The volition will always have an intrinsic good, no matter what the inclination is. Kant claims that an inclination for an action cannot be respected as good, because it is not connected to the principle of good will, only the effect of the action. The notion of duty, “the necessity of acting from respect for law” (P.2), plays an important role in Kant’s moral philosophy. The action of duty must exclude the influence of inclination so it may only be influenced by the objectivity of the law and therefore subjectively respected by us as good.
Without freedom it is impossible to make moral choices [35] In order to assess the claim that without freedom it is impossible to make moral choices, one must first consider the approaches to the concept of free will and determinism whether we in fact possess free moral choice at all. Secular stances towards free will and determinism are; hard determinism, libertarianism and soft determinism. Free will is the notion in regards to morality. That we have the ability to act upon our volition without being coerced into acting in a certain way then we can say we are to be morally praiseworthy or blameworthy. Free will does not mean complete freedom as this is a concept that does not exist in reality.
Situation ethics is a branch of relativism which argues that there are no moral absolutes, so therefore saying that love is the only moral rule is self-contradictory. • It can be difficult to implement in both a personal sense and in society as a whole. No one can fully understand and take into account every single consequence of an action regardless of how intelligent they may be. Therefore no one can be sure that his or her action will cause no pain, and will be beneficial to everyone involved. • Situation ethics can even be a way to approve of what are considered in society as ‘evil’ acts.
It’s up to us as Americans to follow or take a path. We could go left and be innocent and good, or we can go right and be of the world and do the things that we know are bad. According to the companion book, “victims are never truly guilty because they are never truly responsible for their own actions” due to the influences of society. I disagree with that because American’s can’t blame everything on society. We are all responsible for our own actions.
The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment.
I believe that Lennie cannot be held responsible for the decisions he makes because he doesn't understand the problems they cause at all. One prime example of Lennie's inability to make good decisions comes at the beginning of the book. He threatens to leave George alone since he is such a bother to him. On pg. 12 Lennie says, "I could go off in the hills there.
The legitimacy of the law and the obligation to obey the law are derived directly from the right of every citizen to vote. Denying prisoners the right to vote is to lose an important tool of teaching them democratic values and social responsibility. In fact, the denial of voting rights on the basis of attributing moral indignity is inconsistent with respect for the dignity of each person. Furthermore, denying the right to vote does not meet the requirements of a legitimate punishment, and deprivation of this right does not dissuade criminals from committing a crime or rehabilitates them
Ayn Rand Belief in Today’s society. Ayn Rand's belief of those human relationships should exist without sacrifice. Every man is responsible for his own survival, and it is morally wrong to sacrifice yourself for someone unimportant to you, and equally immoral to expect someone else's sacrifice for your sake. Ayn Rand’s belief doesn't eliminate charity, just shouldn't bring harm to you in order to help someone. Of course, you could deleteriously affect your own welfare to help someone, but it might not be a sacrifice depending on the circumstances.
Moreover, the suitability or unfairness of a doing or rule is exclusively a matter of the general non-moral good created in the significances of doing that act or ensuing that rule. A flaw with the utilitarian method is that utilitarianism, if this method is accepted, may validate morally suitable things that are obviously immoral. A good example of this is that utilitarianism can be used to rationalize punishing an innocent man or enslaving a small group of people if such acts create an enlargement of consequences (sweatshops for cheap labor). But in any circumstance such as this, it is still immoral no matter how productive they might be. Virtue ethics theory is a wide-ranging term for theories that accentuate the part of personality and virtue in moral philosophy, relatively than either doing one’s responsibility or acting in order to bring about good values (Nafsika Athanassoulis).