Onora 0 '.Veil! Formula of Universal Law; another is the Formula of the Kingdom of Ends. The one A .Simplified Account on which I shall concentrate is known as the Formula of the End in Itself To understand why of Kant's Ethics Kant thinks that these picturesquely named principles are equivalent to one another takes quite a lot of close and detailed analvsis of Onom 0 '.\"rill tmche.1 philosophy at thr [ 'nnrmty Kant's philosophv. I shall a\oid this and mn- of EHex in Colrhrstn, England. She 1s the author of Acting on Principle and, most rrrentlv. Faces of centrate on showing the implications of this Hunger. version of the Categorical Imperative. 0 'Xei!l intnprets and explains thr formulation of the Categonral Imperative railed the Formula of THE FORMULA OF THE END IN thr End 111 ltsrlf, and thm compares the Kantwn ITSELF and utilita6an moral theones on thr 1alur of human Kant states the Formula of the End in Itself as life. follows:
Act 111 such a way that _)'Oil a!v.'ays treat humanity.
Kant's moral theory has acquired the reputa- uhether in your own person or 111 the pnson of any tion of being forbiddingly difficult to under- other, llfl'el' simply as a mmns but ah<'O\'S at the same stand and, once understood, excessively de- l1mr as an end. 1 manding in its requirements. I don't believe that this reputation has been wholly earned, To understand this we need to know what it and I am going to try to undermine it_ ... I is to treat a person as a means or as an end. shall try to reduce some of the difficul- According to Kant, each of our acts reflects-\ ties ... _ Finally, I shall compare Kantian and one or more maxuns. The maxim of the act is ' utilitarian approaches and assess their the principle on which one sees oneself as strengths and weaknesses. acting. A maxim expresses a person's policy, The main method by which I propose to or if he or she has no settled policy, the prin- avoid some of the difficulties of Kant's moral ciple underlying the particular intention or theon is by explaining only one part of the decision on which he or she acts. Thus, a theorv. This does not seem to me to be an person who decides 'This year I'll give I 0 r irresponsible approach in this case. One of the things that makes Kant's moral theory percent of my income to famine relief' has as/ f;r: a maxim the principle of tithing his or her [tru' !:' hard to understand is that he gives a number income for famine relief the dif- . of diflerent versions of the principle that he calls the Supreme Principle of :\!orality, and ference between intentions and maxims is of these diflcrent versions don't look at all like little importance, for given am intention, we U.t. I, t"Oil.,..t"cll\iSIIot one another. Thev also don't look at all like can formulate the corresponding maxim by