We call ethics in our language everything that is proper or related to this branch of philosophy that deals with the morality of human actions and that, according to its circumstances, will allow us to qualify them as good or bad.
Also, the concept of ethics designates everything that adheres to morality and good customs and the series of norms that regulate a relationship or human behavior within a specific context such as medicine, law, journalism, among other professional activities.
Within the vast universe of ethics we can find various aspects and currents that were elaborated and proposed throughout history by various philosophers, below we will refer to the Formal Ethics proposed by the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant.
Formal ethics or Kantian ethics promote freedom, dignity and good will above all
The Formal Ethics, is what is known as Kantian Ethics, in homage to its propellant, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant.
Regarding the history of ethics and the theory of knowledge, in the XVIII century, there will be a schism with the appearance on the scene of the German philosopher Emmanuel Kant, on the one hand, for his criticism of pure reason and on the other hand because his proposal of a formal ethics certainly came to contrast with the current material ethics.
Your ethical proposal promotes the freedom and dignity of all men above all things. Kant argued that the objectively good is a goodwillThe rest of the things that we usually consider as valuable, such as intelligence, courage, wealth, among others, are not, and can even become dangerous for man when what prevails is a crooked will.
Essential features
According to Kant, man has both reason and instinct, meanwhile, reason not only has a theoretical but also a practical function whose objective is to seek the moral good.
Now, according to Kant, reason can hardly make someone happy, because the wise man, starting from his intellect, will quickly discover death, illness, poverty, among other unpleasant situations, while the good acts that come from the Practical reason does not lead to happiness, although it is possible for the simplest man to find happiness without the need for reason and with his mere instinct. Therefore, Kant argues that if the end of man was precisely happiness, nature would not have endowed us with a practical reason that makes judgments that do not lead us to happiness, then, it is a fact that man was endowed with that reason for an end much higher than happiness.
From the above it is discovered that moral acts are not evaluable based on their results because they are not chosen to achieve something but for themselves, because the result of an act considered good can be harmful, but anyway, the act it will continue to be good, because for Kant the most important thing in a moral act passes through what moves it.
Another relevant concept within the Kantian proposal is the categorical imperative, which are those acts commanded by duty; This imperative will always rule but without any end, only out of respect for duty, therefore, the man who follows it, who is capable of commanding himself, will be a free being.
Just as it is conceived that the moral law cannot dispose of anything empirical, the categorical imperative cannot contain it either, only the form of the moral.
Kant liked to say in this regard that one had to act according to the maxim in such a way that you can at the same time want it to become a universal law; He also recommended acting as if at maximum action he were to become by his own will a universal law of nature; and finally he said that it was necessary to act in such a way as to use humanity both in the person of one and in that of another, always as an end and never as a means.
None of the proposals expressed by Kant had anything linked to experience, but only concerned the form of the moral. He never told the other how he should behave in a concrete and express way, nor did he advocate any norm as the only one, nor did he promote an end with interest of any kind.
He emphasized the universality of our actions and always privileging what one's own will determines, thus making the freedom and autonomy of the people who decide prevail.
For him, the will could not be subject to any element of experience, much less, it must be free and the imperative that is the one that has the mission of regulating it does not promote any conduct, being thus that the will must be given per se a norm of conduct, giving it an absolute autonomous character.
What has distinguished Kantian ethics from the rest of the ethics is the focus placed on the forms of ethical decisions.
