Kants Notion Of Duty And The Role Of Feelings In Moral Conduct Essay

Kant's Notion Of Duty And The Role Of Feelings In Moral Conduct Essay Kant's Notion Of Duty And The Role Of Feelings In Moral Conduct â€" Essay Example > ‘In his paper “The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn”, Jonathan Bennett seems to suggest that acting on sentiment or fellow feeling is generally superior to acting from principles of duty’IntroductionThe primary goal of this essay is to establish the researcher’s position on the above issue. The essay includes a critical analysis of whether actions based on emotions and feelings surpass those sanctioned by moral obligation. The case study of this research is Bennett’s discourse, The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn. The research includes as well a review of Kant’s deontology â€" duty ethics with specific focus on how it relates to two of the characters in the case study. Emotions and choice of actionJonathan Bennett's notion as illustrated in ‘The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn’ is in the estimation of the mind of a prudent person incorrect to say the least. Emotion and sentiments do not constitute a viable ground to base human action on. There is a reasonable ground to believe that decisions triggered by human sentiments and feelings are likely to be subjective. This subjectivity in choice of action is a dangerous phenomenon as there are certain life-changing decisions that are too technical to be made at the peril of petty human emotions. Conscience There is that internal voice that guides rational beings in distinguishing right from wrong. It compels human beings to choose a particular course of action given particular circumstances. This internal aspect of human being that dictates our choices is loud, equivocal and more often than not quite hard to ignore â€" it is referred to as a conscience. All rational beings possess a conscience, which enables them to reason before making any rushed decisions triggered by their present state of emotion. This particular aspect of rational beings: their ability to reason is what distinguishes them from other irrational beings like animals. Given certain circumstances, a rational person ought to act in a way that any other equally diligent and rational being would have acted if they were in that same situation. Human beings are often under enormous stress or other negative emotions. While under such emotions, our actions and choices of action towards others, in any given circumstances, are likely to be biased by our feelings. As opposed to Bennett’s view of acting upon sentiments, one ought to behave in a way that would be universally acceptable. Our action in all circumstances should take a course that we would want to see becoming a universal law. This is the underlying philosophy in Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative. The categorical imperativeThe categorical imperative (CI) forms the basic principle of moral reasoning as espoused in Kant’s deontology. The nature of the categorical imperative qualifies it as a categorical syllogism â€" that which includes a conclusion inferred from premises by way of deductive reasoning. One of the premises which is also the first m axim of CI is. ..a course of action undertaken by an individual is morally upright only if they perceived it, without exceptions, as the course that a reasonable person would undertake in similar situations. The subsequent premise and maxim is that one only acts morally only if ‘they regard others as ends and not means to an end’. Hence, a moral act is that which is deductible from these premises.