Ethical Systems

Ethical formalism. What is good is that which conforms to the categorical imperative. This is the ethical system of Immanuel Kant, which is normative and deontological. It is a universal ethic that asserts every person is to be treated with equal dignity and respect rather than as an object or a means to an end. A truly moral action is motivated by good will, not because the individual doing the good deed expects "payment, wants a return favor, or for any reason other than a good will," while immoral actions to achieve moral or ethical ends are not permitted (Pollock, 2006, p. 27). Ethical formalism could not support unjust laws that violated basic human rights because these "run counter to the categorical imperative that each person must be treated as an end rather than as a means, and to the universalism principle" (Pollock, p. 65). This is the...
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