Volkswagen's Ethical Law

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In the recent years, one of the biggest motor vehicle companies had been involved in a horrendous scandal. Volkswagen has been accused of cheating the emission test. An employee by the name of James Liang has helped create software that cheated the emission test; which tested against the pollution produced by the cars. The company spent billions to help those affected, and Mr. Liang was sentenced to jail. The company claimed it did not have any part in it, and that this was solely done by Mr. Liang. However, the judge decided that he worked for the company for 30 years and many executives should have known of his actions. In the end, he was sentenced to jail, even though he helped expose the company even further. It still backed fired and …show more content…

He is a known for many things, but the most important one is the Kant’s moral theory. In this theory, Kant discusses the goodwill, duty, maxim, and the categorical imperative. Starting with the goodwill: a single moral principle which freely chooses to use the other virtues for moral ends. In other words to act out of a sense of moral obligation or duty. The basis for the ethical law was constructed by the concept of duty. A will which acts of obligation is discernable as a will which defeats obstructions with a specific end goal to keep the ethical law. Next, we discuss the understanding of maxim, a maxim is a principle on which we act upon. An example of maxim would be the idea of stealing from the rich in order to give it to the poor. When we formulate a maxim, we must obligate to follow through it. As we continue on we come across an important principle of morality called categorical imperative. The categorical imperative binds us, paying a little bit more mind to our wants; everybody has an obligation to not lie; therefore, paying a little respect to the conditions and regardless of whether it is to our greatest advantage to do so. It is supposed to provide us as a means of evaluating moral actions and to make moral judgments. Kant believes that a good way to act is to follow the categorical imperative. A great example of this would be if you see an older man crossing the street, it would be imperative to help him cross the street. Reason being it is a virtuous thing to do, and not a means of

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