Comparing Kant and Aristotle

Overview

Recall questions on duty against character, the place of emotion, how each grounds moral authority, and where each is strongest.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is the basic difference in what each theory asks?

   Model answer

   Kant asks what I ought to do, and answers with a test applied to the maxim of an action. Aristotle asks what sort of person I should become, and answers with an account of character developed over a lifetime. One is act-centred, the other agent-centred, and they can approve the same action for entirely different reasons.

2. 2

   Which offers more practical guidance?

   Model answer

   Kant supplies a decision procedure that can be applied by anyone with reason, which is why his approach translates into codes, rights and law. Aristotle supplies no algorithm, relying on practical wisdom formed by experience, which is realistic about hard cases but unhelpful to someone who lacks that formation. So Kant is stronger on determinacy, Aristotle on sensitivity to particulars.

3. 3

   How compatible is each with religious approaches?

   Model answer

   Aristotle was absorbed into Christian ethics by Aquinas, who added the theological virtues, so virtue language sits easily with traditions that speak of formation, discipleship and the shaping of character; the friction is that eudaimonia is this-worldly and Aristotle's great-souled man, conscious of his own worth, sits awkwardly beside Christian humility. Kant's insistence on autonomy conflicts with divine command ethics, since a law received from God would be heteronomous, yet his postulates of God and immortality and his account of human dignity have been widely used by religious ethicists.

4. 4

   How do the two show up in law and social change?

   Model answer

   The duty-based approach lies behind rights instruments, anti-discrimination law and the requirement of consent, all of which protect individuals against being traded off for aggregate benefit. The virtue approach shows in character education in schools, professional codes framed around integrity and compassion rather than rules, and restorative justice, which asks what will reform an offender rather than only what punishment the act deserves.

5. 5

   What is the central difference between Kant's ethics and Aristotle's?

   Model answer

   Kant asks what duty requires of an action, Aristotle asks what character a person should become.

6. 6

   How does each thinker treat the emotions in moral life?

   Model answer

   Kant holds that acting from inclination gives an act no moral worth, while Aristotle holds that the virtuous person feels the right emotion at the right time.

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