Kant's second form of the categorical imperative states that we should always treat persons as ends in themselves never
merely as means to our ends.
Her concern is, that in their desire for making converts, people on short - term missions often treat local people
merely as means to an end rather than as ends in themselves.
American liberalism, on the other hand, because it emerged partly from Progressivism, tends to take a more utilitarian perspective on such things, viewing autonomy
merely as a means to an end, the end being increasing the happiness of as many people as possible.
Blogging should be more of a Kantian idea — not using someone
merely as a means to an end — than the common idea, which is so often put into practice, that the authour of the blog is a sort of corporation bent on making money off you.
Kant's ethics, after all, are partly based on the idea that a being who can think logically (and therefor linguistically) should not be treated
merely as a means to an end.
Not exact matches
The main reason for this is that the euro is
merely a
means to a much more coveted
end — political union,
as Germany's Finance Minister glibly admitted in a 2011 interview with Welt am Sontag:
Apparently many people view work
as merely a
means to an
end.
The principle that the individual is
to be treated
as an
end, and never
merely as a
means to some other
end, can not possibly rule the life of any society.
The sophisms of the substantiality of the «I» even today retain a particular luster, along with the Nietzschean and Freudian critiques of the subject; it is not without importance
to find the root and philosophical
meaning of them in the Kantian dialectic; this latter has condemned in advance any claim
to dogmatize on personal existence and knowledge of the person; the person is manifested only in the practical act of treating it
as an
end and not
merely as a
means.
Death becomes not the sheer destruction or obliteration of life but
merely its termination, the setting of a limit
to the total number of indestructible experiences that comprise a given life.49 Secondly, in urging upon man the principle that his actions help determine the nature of God's everlasting memory of him, it gives very powerful inducement
to highly moral and unselfish living within a cosmic perspective.50 Finally, it affirms a cosmic basis for absolutely cherishing the worth of life's every moment, inasmuch
as «each moment of life is an
end in itself, and not just a
means to some future goal.
These are only some among the many pictures which Christians were already using in the first century
to express their belief that God encountered men through the acts and words of Jesus; that in the
end it was not
merely possible but necessary
to say that Jesus is God, not only that he is the image or mirror of God; and that Christians may and should pray
to God through him (which
means,
to pray
to God
as made known in Jesus) and even pray
to Jesus
as God.
The first ethical principle is that we should treat subjects
as ends in themselves and not
merely as means to our own
ends.
place the highest value on the
end result — marriage — and
as a result they wind up using the other person
merely as a
means to get it.
A way of framing Kant's categorical imperative is
to insist that human agents,
as makers of
ends, can not be construed
merely as means to another's
ends, but must be accorded dignity.
He never questions the ethics of it,
merely seeing it
as a
means to an
end.
The fact that highly - educated families
end up using proxies such
as class sizes have no relation
to quality of teaching and curricula
means that they are
merely guessing when it comes
to helping their kids get into great schools.
Using Ryan or Sullivan
as the benchmark for measuring «success» suggests that the singular goal of self - publishing is
to become one of the «lucky few» who eventually get picked up by traditional houses; in other words, it reinforces the idea that self - publishing is
merely the
means to an
end.
As within many of Barth's installations, her photographs become a
means, rather than
merely an
end,
to her work.
Other works
merely use geometric abstraction
as a
means to a conceptual
end (Willem de Rooij's wax - print - on - cotton floor work, Blue
to Black, 2012, for instance), and it's hard
to determine their exact relevance
to the story of this type of abstraction.
It involves determining the inherent value of beginnings and missteps when painting orthodoxy would cast them
merely as transitory
means to a better
end.
Rather, the vague and undefined concept of «self - empowerment» is preferred, and is said
to engender «a greater sense of responsibility and independence» and
to vary from self - determination «in that it is a
means to an
end - ultimately social and economic equality - rather than
merely an
end in itself»: Senator Herron, 9th Annual Joe and Enid Lyons Memorial Lecture,
as quoted in Social justice report 1999, op.cit, pp19 - 20.