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Psychology
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Why Does Kant Find Lying a Problem?

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Kant and Lying
Read chapter 9 (pages 107-119) in The Ethical Life. Focus on pages 113-118. This is the section titled "The Categorical Imperative." In this section, you will find the two key versions of Kant's categorical imperative: the principle of universalizability (see page 114) and the principle of humanity (see page 117). Following each version of the imperative, Kant gives four examples illustrating how to apply the imperative to specific duties. The second example in each case states that we have a perfect duty to others to always tell the truth. This means that is is never morally acceptable to tell a lie. Many people find this claim, which Kant makes in other places, hard to understand. Your assignment for this week is to try to make sense of this claim. You will do this by completing the writing assignment below. To receive full credit, you must respond to all the prompts in a meaningful and appropriate manner.
Why does Kant find lying to be such a problem?
How can you stay true to Kant's basic ideas but allow for lying in some circumstances, i.e you can stop one person from harming another by lying?
NOTE: I am not asking for your opinion about lying in either question. I want you to try to figure out why lying is so wrong for Kant. Stick to his philosophy. Also, with the second question, I am not asking for how you justify lying, but rather how you might be able to justify lying using Kant's own ideas. I hope that helps clarify the assignment. Let me know if you have any questions. Also, you are welcome to use outside resources to help answer the questions, but you must cite them. Your assignment will be check for plagiarism with SafeAssign. Any assignment deemed plagiarized will receive a zero. One final note, even if you cite your sources, but your answer is nothing but quotes, you will not receive full credit for the assignment. I am asking you to think about Kant's philosophy and to answer the questions in your own words.

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Why does Kant find lying to be such a problem?
Kant is the most well‐known protector of an absolute prohibition against lying in Western philosophy. In his works, Kant claimed that lying was always morally wrong. Kant argued that each individual must tell the truth because responsibility is inseparable from the right (Stokke 350). Kant finds lying to be a problem because he believed that each person was born with an intrinsic worth referred to as human dignity. Human dignity originates from the fact that people are exceptional rational agents that can guide their conduct by reason and make choices without being influenced. Based on Kant’s views, to be human is to possess the sensible power of free will, and to be ethical is to respect that power in oneself and others.
Therefore, lying is morally wrong and a problem for two reasons. First, every lie an individual tells contradicts the part that gives him/her moral worth. It implies that lying harms the most valuable quality of being a human being; the ability to make rational and free choices. Second, telling a lie deprives others of the liberty and freedom to choose rationally. It indicates that when a person lies and makes others act or choose something that they would not have done or determined if they knew the truth, such person harms others' autonomy and dignity (Hill 81). Since lying is morally wrong and an act that corrupts human dignity, people should value themselves and others as ends instead of a means to an end. It is to say that each person has perfect duties to avoid harming, obstructing, or mistreating the ability to make rational and free choices. In other words, lying is not and should never be an option.
How can you stay true t...
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