Epicurus and Kant: a comparison of their ethical systems

Download

index.pdf

Date

2010

Author

Kutan, Ali Haydar

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

516
views

125
downloads

In this Study, the empiricist ethical system of Epicurus and idealist ethical system of Kant will be compared. Kant maintains that as Epicurus’ ethics regards morality as a means for the attainment of happiness, it is nothing but a self-love ethics. He, for this reason, calls Epicurean morality “selfishness.” According to Kant, the maxims of happiness can be known only through experience but he says, experience can never produce a law which is universal and necessary. He contends that as Epicurean ethics has happiness as its ultimate goal (i.e., the highest good), it cannot be able to produce an objective morality, valid for all rational beings. Kant, on the other hand, tries to found his ethical system on an a priori moral law of pure reason which borrows nothing from experience. This Study would, in a sense, be a defense of Epicurean ethical system against Kant’s claims. The main argument of the thesis is that Epicurean ethics is not a self-love ethics, but rather a system which propounds happiness for all. I will be arguing that for Epicurus, one’s own happiness is necessarily bound up with the happiness of others, and that his system is sound and consistent. I will also try to show that Kant is not successful in deducing a transcendentally ideal (a priori) law of reason and that his system has some inconsistencies.

Subject Keywords

Professional ethics.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12612400/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/19920

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Nietzsche's criticisms of Kantian morality Binici, Başta Başar; Parkan, Barış; Department of Philosophy (2010) The purpose of this study is to explain and evaluate Nietzsche’s criticisms of Kantian morality. Kantian morality has greatly influenced western moral thought. Nietzsche’s criticisms focus on the scientific and universal character of this philosophy. This work focuses on the ideas of ‘freedom’, ‘autonomy’, ‘individual virtues’ and ‘morality as a science’. In order to understand and analyze Nietzsche’s critiques, his epistemological criticisms are also evaluated.
Ethics Teaching in Higher Education for Principled Reasoning: A Gateway for Reconciling Scientific Practice with Ethical Deliberation Akozer, Mehmet; Akozer, Emel (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2017-06-01) This paper proposes laying the groundwork for principled moral reasoning as a seminal goal of ethics interventions in higher education, and on this basis, makes a case for educating future specialists and professionals with a foundation in philosophical ethics. Identification of such a seminal goal is warranted by (1) the progressive dissociation of scientific practice and ethical deliberation since the onset of a problematic relationship between science and ethics around the mid-19th century, and (2) the e...
Ex contingente necessarium or a philosophical analysis of the connection between Weber and Marx Kundakçı, Deniz; Ceylan, Yasin; Department of Philosophy (2010) Max Weber and Karl Marx have been compared in various ways, especially since Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was first published in the beginning of 20th century. The general claim was that their perspectives are completely different from each other. With the analysis of Protestant Ethic, they claim, Weber came up with a negative answer to Marx in terms of his analysis of the relationship between society and economy. However, in this study it is indicated that Weber’s analyses were in ...
The relation of freedom and evil in Kant’s moral philosophy Aydın Bayram, Selma; Turan, Şeref Halil; Department of Philosophy (2006) The purpose of this study is to examine concepts of freedom and evil, and to clarify their relation in terms of Kant’s moral philosophy. In this study, I firstly examine Kant’s understanding of freedom and the problems that this understanding leads to. I also discuss how the concept of freedom can be reconciled with the concept of evil expressed in the form of “propensity to evil”. Additionally, I attempt to show the significance of the notion of evil for Kant’s moral theory. Evil is one of the most critici...
Human nature, ethics and politics in the philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and Immanuel Kant Yağanak, Eray; Turan, Şeref Halil; Department of Philosophy (2013) The aim of this study is to make a comparison between Thomas Hobbes’ and Immanuel Kant’s theories of human nature, ethics and politics. This thesis defends the arguments of Kant’s republican political theory against the claims raised by Hobbes. In this thesis, I shall argue that Hobbes’ empiricist/mechanistic understanding of human nature cannot provide freedom of action for human beings within his ethical and political theory. In contrast to Hobbes, I shall defend the thesis that Kant’s understanding of hu...

Citation Formats

A. H. Kutan, “Epicurus and Kant: a comparison of their ethical systems,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2010.