Kant’s Three Premises Deontology Paper

Read chapter 3, and watch the films “Gone Baby Gone” and “Sleepers”. Pick one movie and apply Kant’s moral philosophy to judge the MAIN FINAL action.

** For “Gone Baby Gone” judge Patrick’s final decision

** For “Sleepers” judge the priest’s final decision.

Judging any other action in the movie is an automatic zero.

500 words minimum in MLA format.

*You must apply Kant’s 3 premises and Michael Sandel’s 3 contrasts

Kant’s Three Premises
Kant’s Categorical Imperative
Nature of the concept

The concept of the categorical imperative is a syllogism

1.The first premise is that a person acts morally if his or her conduct would, without condition, be the “right” conduct for any person in similar circumstances (the “First Maxim”).

2.The second premise is that conduct is “right” if it treats others as ends in themselves and not as means to an end (the “Second Maxim”).

3.The conclusion is that a person acts morally when he or she acts as if his or her conduct was establishing a universal law governing others in similar circumstances (the “Third Maxim”).

Kant’s Three Premises Explained
In the case of ” Gone Baby Gone” the philosophical process you will follow in this paper should sound as something like this:

According to Kant’s first premise Patrick behaved moral because he returned the victim he was hired to find and without condition this is the “right” conduct for any detective in cases of kidnapping (the “First Maxim”). Here Kant speaks of doing the right prior to good.

2. On Kant’s second premise Patrick acted moral because he respected the dignity of Amanda and he treated her as an end in herself and not as means to an end like everyone else was doing in the film (the “Second Maxim”). Here Kant speaks of humans as special creatures and ends in themselves. Humans are ends, not means to an end. Los seres humanos son un fin, no un medio para un fin.

3. The conclusion is that a detective act morally when he reports a kidnapping to the police and this behavior should establish a universal law governing all detectives in cases of kidnapping (the “Third Maxim”). Here Kant asks us to test the universality of our action. Will it be OK if everyone does what I am about to do?

VIDEO Michael Sandel’s 3 contrasts

Three contrasts:

** Morality { the motive of duty}

**Freedom {Determination of will}

** Reason {imperatives}

VIDEO

(1) Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? Episode 06: “MIND YOUR MOTIVE” – YouTube

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.