PHIL 1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Formal And Material Principles Of Theology, Categorical Imperative, Political Philosophy

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 1010
• Professor: Victoria Burke

Document Summary

Kant and mill are probably the two biggest modern ethical theorists. He has a formal moral philosophy that is based around one principle that he called the categorical imperative. One should only act in such a way that one can will the maxim of one"s action as a universal law. This is the central principle of his moral philosophy. If you can"t agree with that, then you shouldn"t lie. Kant divided the world into our perception and what it actually is. Things come to us structured by the categories we use-in a form that is intelligible to us due to the categories that are hardwired into us. He focuses on how the mind structured such that it shapes our experiences for us. For our purposes, it is interesting to note that he thought that the moral law was part of the structure of cognition. The categorical imperative: this is a formal principle.