Put yourself under a veil
Posted on: December 13, 2010, at 09:59:32am

Alright, so I was having a discussion the other day studying for an exam this past saturday with a buddy of mine about Kant. Immanuel Kant was a philosophy during the 19th century whose notable work was on ethics. Be basically believed that goods (morals) could be universalized so that everyone would coexist in a kingdom where everyone was good. I told my friend (since we had to study Kant for the exam) I had a lot of problems with what he advocated, I wrote a similar paper/presentation for the same class earlier in the year.
Well Gab, my friend asked why I had such a problem... here is where the title comes.
Suppose you were placed under a veil, where you did not know the social structure you were in, how much money you made, where you lived, etc... would you then argue for universalized morals? Most people would say probably, but there are numerous examples that pertain to how we act on a regular basis that throw Kant's theory out of the window.
1. lying
2. self defence
3. stealing
these were the primary examples I used to illustrate that universalized morals are basically impossible.
If you were placed under this veil and asked the question "would you regard stealing okay", you would have to realize before you made your decision that you don't know where you live and how much money you made... if that were the case you would have to argue stealing was okay.
I actually had another random thought within this random thought... would that mean morals would all be universalized just individually? Kant shows that we need reason in order to will a maxim so it cuts though to be a universal law. Every law we will must be a maxim, however it would be the exact opposite. It would necessarily mean we would will all the opposite laws into universals, but perhaps practice being good.
Like we could steal, however if we have food why would we?
But regardless, under the veil you would argue stealing was okay because YOU could be in the position where you would have to steal based on where you lived and if you were poor or not.
It then just leaves me to think what are morals then?
It seems that we only do what we have to do to stay alive and nothing more. We have morals when we're not in any danger and society is 'peaceful' in a sense. Morality only goes out the window when we have to fend for ourselves and not rely on anyone... similar to a end-of-the-world scenerio. Now I'm just starting to ramble more... but I needed to think about that before I forgot about the thought in general... I just hope it was something to think about.
Please ask questions :)

1. 1: _Chels_
   Posted at 2:49am on December 23rd, 2010

   you ask what are morals..what i've always wondered is , what's a soul? ....
   dun dun dunn
2. 2: Finkle007
   Posted at 7:53am on December 23rd, 2010

   It's hard to even clearly say we have a soul because we just don't know. People wonder if that's the reason why we try to be good people because the soul tries to guide us in that direction. I want to agree but it's not because I'm compelled to do good, I just do it because I choose to... it's the better choice but there is no compulsion