ENRIQUEZ, Josephine Angelica Beatrice M.

3A

Assignment #2: A Theory on Morality

There are times when I feel stuck and end up on crossroads.

Between making what felt like an impossible choice at that time and
then never looking back for fear of making the wrong one, that
thought would usually drive me insane and I had to learn how to
manage such emotion. It is human nature that we are concerned
about the direction we are in and that we want to avoid making the
biggest mistake. It is also human nature that we crave of being
completely free and rising above adversity. Among the choices I
made revolve around the same topic of our assignment which
addresses the question, "What is the right thing to do?"

According to Immanuel Kant, what makes an action morally

worthy consists not in the consequences or in the results that flow
from it. Rather, what makes an action morally worthy has to do with
the quality of the will or the intention for what the action is done. One
must adhere to duty, autonomy, and categorical imperative which
Kant considers as his three contrasts. Briefly, these concepts would
mean: acting when duty is the only reason to act is considered
morally right; autonomy is the only value that can be an end in itself;
and categorical imperative is acting without dependence on any
purpose.

Having watched the lecture, I have some reservations with

Kantian ethics and I feel that it faces some serious issues of its own.
For one, because all duties are absolute, how can they help us
resolve conflicts of duty? It seems black and white to me and
discounts other extraneous situations. Second, it disregards moral
emotions such as sympathy and remorse for being appropriate and
ethical motives for action. Third, by totally ignoring the consequences
of an action, one becomes blind to action which is relevant although
not strictly defining moral worth. Another realization is that due to our
propensity to evil, we can never be truly free as being guided by duty
and honor is not guaranteed.

Word count: 338