Week 3 Discussion
Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, view the Week 3 content in the PHI208: Ethics & Moral ReasoningLinks to an external site. interactive multimedia, and watch the DeontologyLinks to an external site. video in the Week 3 Guidance.
Read Chapter 4 of How Should One Live? An Introduction to Ethics and Moral Reasoning, the Kant Required Reading Marked in Red Download Kant Required Reading Marked in Reddocument for Immanuel Kant’s (2017) Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s” Letter From a Birmingham Jail.”
This discussion has two parts, both of which require careful examination of Section 4.2 in Chapter 4 of the text, so consider reading it more than once like you were asked to do in the Week 1 Reading Philosophy discussion.
In Part 1 of this discussion, create your own test case following the format presented in Section 4.2 of the textbook.
In Part 2, create a test case based on a single sentence you select from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
PART 1 – Test Case
Discuss either the formula of universal law or the formula of humanity.
Create your own test case following the format presented in Section 4.2 of the text. The text case can be anything you want to consider, but it must be an action such as lying, cheating, or killing one person to save the lives of five others. It can even be an absurd or far-fetched example such as a test case with a maxim that states you will eat a piece of cake any time you sneeze, or that you will sing a brief song every time you blink (These work well when imagining what the world would be like if everyone in it obeyed the universal law).
PART 2 – Test Case: “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”
Using the same format as above,
Identify a sentence in Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” that you think is consistent with the principles of deontology. Look for sentences that focus on a single idea and above all, sentences that contain an action or can be transformed into an action.
For example, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” is a sentence that falls within the general territory of deontology but does not contain a clear action. To rephrase this maxim with an action, you might state, “Anytime I see injustice, I will fight against it because it is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Place your sentence just below the Part 2 heading, then fill in the five reasoning steps as presented above: (1) Maxim, (2) Universal Law, (3) The World, (4) Contradiction, (5) Conclusion.
Complete your primary post by explaining whether a utilitarian would agree with the conclusion in one of your test cases.
