The word "end" in this phrase has the same meaning as in
the phrase "means to an end".
The philosopher Immanuel Kant said that rational human
beings should be treated as an end in themselves and not as a means to
something else. The fact that we are human has value in itself.
- If
a person is an end-in-themself it means their inherent value doesn't
depend on anything else - it doesn't depend on whether the person is
enjoying their life, or making other people's lives better. We exist, so
we have value.
- Most
of us agree with that - though we don't put it so formally. We say that we
don't think that we should use other people, which is a plain English way
of saying that we shouldn't treat other people as a means to our own ends.
- This
idea applies to us too. We shouldn't treat ourselves as a means to our own
ends; instead we should respect our inherent worth.
- This can
be used as an argument against euthanasia, suicide and other behaviours
that damage ourselves.
- The
idea also shows up in discussions of animal rights, with the idea that if
they have rights, animals must be treated as ends in themselves.
Relevance of Kant on the debate of Euthansia.
Relevance of Kant as far as Animal Rights are concerned
Animal and human rights boil down to one fundamental right: the
right to be treated with respect as an individual with inherent value.
Philosophers have a traditional way of expressing this:
Animals with rights must be treated as ends in themselves; they
should not be treated by others as means to achieve their ends.
Kant on Religion
- Under influence of 'understanding'; Kant makes the
choice to BELIEVE in two independent realities: a physical outer reality
AND an inner reality of the dreams of our 'understanding ('preprogrammed'
as 'moral' structure in our 'mind').
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- And not to see reality as an all the time mutating
system with internal reality as part of this reality-system . To realize
why Kant believes in an 'understanding' 'mind' apart from body it is
enlightening to consider Kant's opinion about the existence of 'god'.
- In Kant's view a 'god' is unexpendable as an
internal moral lawgiver. Kant sincerely believes that humans can't survive
without following the moral directives of some 'god' in a connected
religion.
- Immanuel Kant believed that humans need
religious addiction and the inherent isolation of 'understanding', because in Kant's opinion humans, although they
survived awfully long, are not equipped to make sense of the physical
reality of their environment. And in addition to that belief in the
necessity of religion, Kant was sure that humans are ESSENTIALLY different
from apes.
