The Metaphysics of Morals

"This is the categorical imperative that you alluded to at the beginning. In my book, I try to create a synthesis between a variety of ethical frameworks. I wanted to put something in front of all of them, something that’s antecedent to any one of them. There’s utilitarianism, which is the greatest good for the greatest number. How do we know what’s right or wrong? If we just make the most people happy, then that should be about right. There are problems with that, which you can read about. But that’s one option. “All moral questions become exquisitely clear through the lens of one billion years in the future” Another one is like when you were a kid, and you stole a candy bar, and your parents would say to you, ‘What if everyone stole a candy bar? Then there wouldn’t be any candy bars.’ That’s the simplest precept of, if you do something wrong, imagine in your head what it would be like if everyone did that thing you’re about to do. And then imagine what the world would look like. That’s the crux of the categorical imperative: take any action you’re about to take and imagine it was an axiom, a rule for all of humanity, and then imagine what the world would look like. It’s not perfect, but it does a pretty good job of thinking though whether this would be good or bad for the world. It’s a version of the golden rule, treat others as you would like to be treated. But the thing I love about Kant is he goes on and on in most of his books about a sense of duty. He talks about duty in a variety of contexts: to family, to country, to children, but also about the duty to do the right thing. Most people, when they think of duty, it’s one of least exciting words that they can imagine. A lot of duties can be abrogated. You can say, ‘I’m a father, but I’m going to leave and start a different family.’ You can go to live in a different country. You can fight for one country and 10 years later fight against your country. Many duties are transient, really. But Kant argues that a lot of your moral duty is innate. And I think our duty towards humanity and towards being the guardians or shepherds of life is also something that’s innate and activated by awareness of extinction. I take a lot of his writings on duty very much to heart, I guess I’d say."