Kant and the Hangman

citizen. We would thus be violating his humanity.

In Kant’s view of ethics, actions must be undertaken from a sense of duty dictated by reason, and no action performed for appropriateness or solely in obedience to law or custom can be regarded as moral. Moral acts are done for the “right” reasons. Kant goes on to describe two types of commands given by reason: the hypothetical imperative, which dictates a given course of action to reach a specific end; and the categorical imperative, which dictates a course of action that must be followed because o

The answer is simple: we were all given free will. If a person is a responsible, we must acknowledge the fact that all actions, criminal or otherwise, are a natural result of free will and therefore subject to human law. In punishing a criminal, we are essence doing just that. We are in effect acknowledging his humanity.

To answer this, we must first understand his concept of jus talionis—the right of retaliation. In essence, there are two parts to this. One, Kant argues that a punishment must fit the crime. He would argue that the degree of suffering inflicted on the victim should be inflicted on the perpetrator. Two, if one commits a crime, he is exposing himself to the danger of his actions. If crime were to become universalized, and therefore acceptable, what is there to protect him from the wrongdoing of others? There would be nothing to shield the rapist from being violated, the thief from being stolen from, or the murderer from being killed.

People attempt to describe good based on virtuous thought. Virtuous thought supposes that a virtuous person has a fairly explicit concept of what is moral. Kant’s perception skews the person's thought because each person perceives an event (whatever the event may be) differently. It is this difference in what people perceive that creates opposing viewpoints on morality whether virtuous or not. Any attempt to provide a universal ethic to the community is impeded by the community itself. Not only was it an impossible task in Kant's time, but it is still impossible today.

torture his victim to death, m

Some topics in this essay:
Immanuel Kant, kant’s view, categorical imperative, capital punishment, punishment fit crime, imperative dictates course, dictates course action, based perception, proportional crime, violating humanity, jus talionis, fit crime, death sentence, dictates course,