Emotion and Morality

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses Kant's belief that fulfilling responsibilities could only be a rational choice, as opposed to an emotional choice. The paper looks at Hume who, on the contrary, believed that moral judgments were related to sentiments. The paper explains how Kant and Hume apply their theories to women. The paper concludes that Hume's theory of morality would appear to be the most applicable to human beings of the 21st century.

From the Paper:

"Immanuel Kant devised the categorical imperative in relation to morality. In the categorical imperative moral decisions were "objective, rational and freely chosen" (Cash sec. 1). Morality, according to Kant, could not be determined by the emotions of a human being. This is because morals require the decision making to be associated with the duties that each person is required to fulfill. Kant argued that fulfilling responsibilities could only be a rational choice because emotions would lead the person to consider only what he wanted, rather than what needed to be done. Consequently the individual had to accomplish moral actions based on principles, which could not be related to emotions because emotions were subjective, while principles were factual (Cash sec. 1)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Cash, Mason. "Distancing Kantian Ethics and Politics". Minerva. 13 September 2006. < http://www.ul.ie/~philos/vol6/kantian.html>
• Fieser, James. "David Hume-Moral Theory". The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2006. 13 August 2006. < http://www.iep.utm.edu/h/humemora.htm>
• Schmitter, Amy. "Hume on Emotions". Stanford University. 13 September 2006. < http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emotions-17th18th/LD8Hume.html>

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