Everyday maxim / convenient borrowing
Would the maxim survive Kant's test?
You borrow £40 by promising repayment next Friday while already intending never to repay it.
- Kant objects
- Kant permits it
- Right act, suspect moral worth
Kant objects: the false promise eats the practice it needs: If everyone promised with no intention of repaying, promises would become useless. The maxim needs other people to trust a practice it is busy wrecking; it also manipulates the lender's choice.
Kant, Groundwork II: the false-promise exampleEveryday maxim / social escape
Polite escape or violation of duty?
You invent a dead-relative emergency to avoid a dinner you no longer want to attend.
- Kant objects
- Kant permits it
- Right act, suspect moral worth
Kant objects: another person is being managed through a lie: The lie gives the host false grounds on which to act. A truthful refusal may be awkward, but convenience does not create an exception to truthfulness.
Kant, Groundwork II: humanity as an endEveryday maxim / property and respect
Does Kant approve?
You return a lost wallet because its owner has a right to it, although nobody could have traced you.
- Kant objects
- Kant permits it
- Right act, suspect moral worth
Kant permits—and the stated motive matters: Returning the wallet respects the owner's agency and property. Because the reason is duty rather than reward or fear, the action also has moral worth on Kant's account.
Kant, Groundwork IEveryday maxim / the enormous cheque
How does Kant classify the action?
You fund a shelter solely because the public applause will improve your status.
- Kant objects
- Kant permits it
- Right act, suspect moral worth
The act accords with duty; the motive supplies no moral worth: The shelter still receives money and the act may be right. Kant's sharper claim is that acting only for status lacks the distinctive moral worth of acting from duty.
Kant, Groundwork I: action from dutyEveryday maxim / the unobserved answer key
Would this trouble Kant?
You could copy an answer without detection but refuse because cheating cannot be a fair rule for everyone.
- Kant objects
- Kant permits it
- Right act, suspect moral worth
Kant permits: the reason appeals to a public rule: The maxim rejects a private exception and preserves the practice of assessment. It treats the other participants as equal law-makers rather than obstacles.
Kant, Groundwork II: universal lawEveryday maxim / strategic kindness
Kind act or calculated use?
You help an exhausted colleague solely so they will feel unable to refuse your request next week.
- Kant objects
- Kant permits it
- Right act, suspect moral worth
The help may be right; the manipulative motive lacks moral worth: Benefiting the colleague does not erase the attempt to manufacture leverage. Kant asks whether the person is respected as an end or cultivated as a future instrument.
Kant, Groundwork II: humanity as an endEveryday maxim / an extremely non-everyday doorstep
What is Kant's notorious verdict?
A murderer asks where the intended victim is hiding. You lie and send the murderer away.
- Kant objects
- Kant permits it
- Right act, suspect moral worth
Kant objects to the lie—even here: Kant's published position denies a right to lie to the murderer. That does not require answering: refusal, obstruction and protective action remain distinct possibilities. Critics argue that the strict rule makes moral purity complicit in killing.
Kant, On a Supposed Right to LieEveryday maxim / your uniquely valuable Tuesday
Does the private exception pass?
You jump a long queue because your time feels more important and nobody is enforcing the rule.
- Kant objects
- Kant permits it
- Right act, suspect moral worth
Kant objects: apparently your Tuesday is not sovereign territory: The queue works only because everyone else restrains the same preference. “My time matters more because it is mine” cannot become an equal public law.
Kant, Groundwork II: universalisationEveryday maxim / unwanted friendship
Must duty preserve the relationship?
You end a friendship honestly and without cruelty rather than continuing to perform affection you no longer feel.
- Kant objects
- Kant permits it
- Right act, suspect moral worth
Kant permits an honest ending: There is no duty to counterfeit intimacy. Honest explanation can respect the other person's capacity to understand and choose, provided it avoids humiliation or deception.
Kantian application: respect for rational agencyEveryday maxim / the watched promise
Right act, good will—or neither?
You keep a promise only because exposure would damage your career.
- Kant objects
- Kant permits it
- Right act, suspect moral worth
The promise is kept, but fear supplies no moral worth: The action conforms to duty. Kant distinguishes that conformity from keeping the promise because it is required, which is what would display a good will.
Kant, Groundwork IEveryday maxim / the manager's spreadsheet
Would Kant defend the refusal?
An employee refuses an order to falsify safety data, despite a credible threat to their promotion.
- Kant objects
- Kant permits it
- Right act, suspect moral worth
Kant permits: truth and public responsibility defeat obedience: A manager's command cannot authorise deception. Refusal respects the people whose decisions and safety depend on accurate information.
Kantian application: truthfulness and humanityEveryday maxim / liberated ideas
Does the noble slogan rescue the act?
You copy a paid article, remove the author's name and publish it as your own because ideas should circulate freely.
- Kant objects
- Kant permits it
- Right act, suspect moral worth
Kant objects: “ideas should circulate freely” is not a magic spell: The maxim conceals authorship while borrowing its authority. It deceives readers about who did the work and uses the author’s labour without respecting them as a rational end.
Kantian application: deception and authorship
