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2.
Sometimes there is no way to resolve a conflict between rules.
One way to address the previous problem is to allow multiple rules to be relevant
to a particular action. In the previous example, we might say that the relevant rules
are (1) you should not steal and (2) you should try to save the lives of innocent
persons. Now the question becomes, if we have a conflict between two rules, which
one should we follow?
Kant distinguished between
perfect duties
, duties we are obliged to fulfill in
each instance, and
imperfect duties
, duties we are obliged to fulfill in general but
not in every instance. For example, you have a perfect duty to tell the truth. That
means you must always tell the truth without exception. On the other hand, you
have an imperfect duty to develop your talents. If you happen to have a talent for
music, you ought to find a way to develop it, but you do not have to take up every
instrument in the orchestra.
If we have a conflict between a perfect duty and an imperfect duty, the perfect
duty must prevail. Returning to our example, we have a perfect duty not to steal.
In contrast, we have only an imperfect duty to help others. Therefore, according to
Kant, it is wrong to steal bread to feed my starving children.
In this case we were fortunate because the conflict was between a perfect duty
and an imperfect duty. In those cases where there is a conflict between perfect duties,
Kantianism does not provide us a way to choose between them.
3.
Kantianism allows no exceptions to perfect duties.
Common sense tells us that sometimes we ought to “bend” the rules a bit if we want
to get along with other people. For example, suppose your mother asks you if you
like her new haircut, and you think it is the ugliest haircut you have ever seen. What
should you say? Common sense dictates that there is no point in criticizing your
mother's hair. She certainly isn't going to get her hair uncut, no matter what you
say. If you compliment her, she will be happy, and if you criticize her looks, she will
be angry and hurt. She expects you to say something complimentary, even if you
don't mean it. There just seems to be no downside to lying. Yet a Kantian would
argue that lying is always wrong because we have a perfect duty to tell the truth.
Any ethical theory so unbending is not going to be useful for solving “real-world”
problems.
While these objections point out weaknesses with Kantianism, the theory does
support moral decision making based on logical reasoning from facts and commonly
held values. It is culture neutral and treats all humans as equals. Hence it meets our
criteria for a workable ethical theory, and we will use it as a way of evaluating moral
problems in the rest of the topic.
The English philosophers Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-
1873) proposed a theory that is in sharp contrast to Kantianism. According to Bentham
