Ursinus Intro Ethics Blog - Section A

There were a few situations brought up in class today regarding Kant and his Formula of Universal I'd like to address. One is a situation where Kant would argue that it is better not to lie to the murderer trying to get in your door rather than save a life, but surely this is fixable with a few emendations to Kant's model. I might argue, for instance, that human life (that "rational machinery") is far more valuable, than the immorality of telling a lie – what Dr. Sorenson provided as the "Kantian" claim rather than Kant's specific stance – but this does not satisfy the more mundane situations.

One such situation brought up about whether we should lie about a person's looks when they are fishing for compliments (or if you just want to make them feel good about themselves) seems easily defended from Kant's point of view. It might make your mother feel good in the short term to tell her she doesn't look old when she asks, but perhaps afterward she looks at herself in the mirror and decides that that was a lie. Surely more harm than good was done here? To take a more complicated case, Frank brought up the question of an alcoholic deceived by her bartender to help prevent her from hurting others and herself. In this case, Kant would still say that the actions of the bartender were wrong, because even if the bartender kept the woman off the streets for a night, ultimately it is possible that weaning her alcohol intake will only make her feel that she has not had enough. Perhaps if she kept drinking she would have sunk so low that she realized she had to stop and quit altogether. This is pure conjecture, obviously, but it is not easy to determine that deception is the better part of valor in any case. Kant would argue to take the high road. In the case where the danger was immediate, as a bartender, he or she can always cut the drinker off, call the police if it looks that they are going to endanger others (by driving home, for instance) as an alternative for lying.

# posted by C.c. @ 10:41 PM