PHLA11H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Universalizability, Immanuel Kant, Kantianism
Document Summary
Utilitarianism says that morality is not fundamentally about well-being, or overall human happiness. However, kantianism says that morality has to do most fundamentally, with fairness and the respect owed to each individual as a human being: e. g. Tim cheats on his taxes, reasoning as follows: If i cheat, i will be able to afford a vacation with my family. So, we will get a lot of happiness. And it would just be a few thousand dollars just a drop in the government"s giant bucket. No one will suffer if i don"t pay al the money i owe . According to utilitarianism, if time is right that no one will suffer in virtue of his not paying all his taxes then it seems he has acted rightly. However, it is wrong to cheat on your taxes regardless of whether or not doing so harms anyone.