I think the categorical imperative is a nice framework. I don’t think your counterexample quite works for me. The babyeater applies the imperative, and is a morally upstanding babyeater who eats lots of its own children. Meanwhile the human applies the imperative and is a morally upstanding human who doesn’t kill any humans (baby or otherwise).
Both actors are acting morally, according to the imperative. That they are not acting the same way just shows that they are different agents with different values. Conversely, a babyeater and a human could both fail to live up to this imperative (eg. the babyeater thinks that child eating is good for the wider world, and wants everyone else to eat their own children to ensure the world stays nice, but it makes an exception for itself.). For both humans and babyeaters adopting the imperative might change their policy. It changes it in different ways for the two of them because they are different.
Yep. I’d still say that there’s something people often try to pull about universality though, imagining that what’s right for group X is right for all groups. The divide is usually not between humans and Babyeaters, but between humans who believe X and humans who believe not X. For example, if you took the two sides of the US culture war, red and blue tribe, and applied the categorical imperative, you’ll get red and blue norms, but they won’t be universal norms, but both groups would like to claim for various reasons that their norms are universal. This is something that the categorical imperative, as stated here, doesn’t really address and actually lets you get away with training to claim universality when you really mean “universal for this group of likeminded folks”.
Yes, I agree that it doesn’t solve all morality and provide the one true moral code. However, at least in my mind, it can be useful for working out which actions are acceptable within a certain narrow-ish group.
I think the categorical imperative is a nice framework. I don’t think your counterexample quite works for me. The babyeater applies the imperative, and is a morally upstanding babyeater who eats lots of its own children. Meanwhile the human applies the imperative and is a morally upstanding human who doesn’t kill any humans (baby or otherwise).
Both actors are acting morally, according to the imperative. That they are not acting the same way just shows that they are different agents with different values. Conversely, a babyeater and a human could both fail to live up to this imperative (eg. the babyeater thinks that child eating is good for the wider world, and wants everyone else to eat their own children to ensure the world stays nice, but it makes an exception for itself.). For both humans and babyeaters adopting the imperative might change their policy. It changes it in different ways for the two of them because they are different.
Yep. I’d still say that there’s something people often try to pull about universality though, imagining that what’s right for group X is right for all groups. The divide is usually not between humans and Babyeaters, but between humans who believe X and humans who believe not X. For example, if you took the two sides of the US culture war, red and blue tribe, and applied the categorical imperative, you’ll get red and blue norms, but they won’t be universal norms, but both groups would like to claim for various reasons that their norms are universal. This is something that the categorical imperative, as stated here, doesn’t really address and actually lets you get away with training to claim universality when you really mean “universal for this group of likeminded folks”.
Yes, I agree that it doesn’t solve all morality and provide the one true moral code. However, at least in my mind, it can be useful for working out which actions are acceptable within a certain narrow-ish group.