Throughout this year we have learned about numerous people and their theories, some interesting and some pointless, but only a few ideas have stood out to me and actually had an impact on my life. Emmanuel Kant's Theory of Universal Law, C.S. Lewis' views on gluttony, Aristotle's Doctrine of the Mean, and James Baldwin's views on dealing with racism have all actually made me think about their true meanings and how they impact my life and the lives of those around me. These ideas have made me view myself, my world, and key historical events in a whole new light.
Emmanuel Kant's Theory of Universal Law states that an action is only moral if everybody could do that same action, at all times, without conflict. Any action no matter how significant is only moral if one can imagine everybody doing that action at once and have their still be no conflict surrounding it. For instance, although going through a red light may not seem like a world ending sin, if everybody in the world ran red lights all the time it would be utter chaos. Helping the poor, on the other hand, is not morally wrong because if everybody were to help the poor, the world would be a much better place.
The Theory of Universal Law immediately stood out to me as a simple, yet effective formula for judging the morality of a certain action. All that I have to do to make my life a moral one, was to put an action into this formula before i do it. Alas, it is not so simple, the law really only works for things that I already know are immoral. It does, however, show me why these certain actions are immoral. On a few occasions this theory has even stopped me from doing something immoral because I thought about it in the context of the law.
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