Philosophy - Expository Exercise: Kant, Railton - Essay Example

He opposes the hypothetical imperative which he viewed then as those actions that are based on desires because they lack the universality in terms of acceptance (Singer 39; 274). A lie can violate the categorical imperative because according to Kant a lie and any other form of immorality is based on the desire of a person. It can be related to the need for self preservation. A person lies due to the fact that he/she needs to save himself from persecution or to achieve something that he/she wants or even needs.

He completely disagrees to the belief of other philosophers that proposed the morality of actions on the basis of the outcomes and results. The point of view of Kant is that there is an absolute disregard for desire to be able to achieve the morality. Due to the fact that lies had been viewed to be based on an individual’s own desire, then it contradicts Kant’s view on morality which is based on the categorical imperative (Singer 39). The main description then of a moral person is an individual whose main motive in actions is the good of the majority.

This can be attributed to the fact that he is living and existing to follow the laws and consensus of the population. Law then is not a set of guidelines for this individual but the main motive from which every action can transpire. To be able to be the said type of person, he/she has to possess the pure reason. He expressed that universality of an action can be achieved not by experience but through the mind which he refers to as the pure reason (Singer 123). Due to the said view then, the subjectivity of morality is eliminated.

Because by having the pure reason as the basis of universality, the variation in the experiences of each individual can be disregarded. By looking through the premises of such reasoning then, if the lie is based on the desire and need of a single person, it can be moral in that person’s point of view but not to the