Theory of Duty

Emanuel Kant’s theory of Duty assesses questions such as; “What makes an act right or wrong?” and “How do we judge the morality of our actions?” Discovering the defining characteristic of moral judgments is important in order to make moral decisions consistently in our every day life. There are situations when people act in such a way that reflects good moral character, however they are actually doing the wrong thing. For example, if you see a homeless person on the streets and you decide to give him/her money for the sole reason they would buy food or other necessities for themselves; if they actually spend it on food then the outcome of your donation is positive, but if they decide to spend the money differently meaning on either drugs or alcohol then your donation would have a negative effect. This is when a problem occurs of whether a moral obligation should depend on the consequences of the act. There could be arguments that giving money to a homeless person is always a moral obligation no matter what but on the other hand, some would argue that the possibilities of every situation should be weighed before actually making any donation. He believed that a duty must be universal for all people and all conditions, and that the maxim of a person’s action can become a universal law of human behavior.

For Emanuel Kant, the morally important thing is not consequences but the way choosers think when they make choices. Kant says that only one thing is inherently good, and that would be good will. He describes, “Will” as a non-material thing that is found in humans and its presence gives human their inherent dignity. What makes the will good? The will is good when it acts out of duty, not out of inclination. This means that you do something because it’s out of respect for the moral law and not because it makes you feel good or you hope to gain something from it. But to do that we must know what the moral law is; to find that out you have to use the “Categorical Imperative”. The Categorical Imperative is a rule for testing rules, and is extremely important when it comes to deciding what is morally right and therefore deciding what it is your