Kant’s Ethics and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Kant’s Ethics
The most important works in Kantian ethics are the Critique of Practical Reason and Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. According to Kant, ethics must find universal and a priori principles of morality, of free action. The goodness or badness of an action lies exclusively with the intention, that is, on the good will of the subject. An action is governed by good will when executed solely out of respect for duty, regardless of other conditions or interests.
Duty is the need for action out of respect for the law, i.e., submission to a moral law, not because of the utility or satisfaction that compliance can provide, but out of respect for it. The moral obligation is expressed by constraints or mandates. Rejecting hypothetical imperatives for being a posteriori (their content is drawn from experience) and conditioned, Kant argues that the moral imperative must be categorical and universal, necessary and absolute, in the form: “Do this, without any conditions, always, in all circumstances, whatever the consequences.”
Kant offered various formulations of the categorical imperative. One of them is: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” This formulation establishes how the rules that determine behavior (called maxims by Kant) have to be: any maxim must be such that the subject may want it to become a standard for all men, a universal law. This formulation also shows the requirement of universality proper to a rational morality.
Another formulation of the categorical imperative: “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.” This formulation emphasizes the obligation to respect human beings because, as rational beings, they have an absolute value: they are ends in themselves, and should never be used merely as means or instruments for something else.
Human Action
Human behavior in which changes are made in our environment.
Types of Action
- According to Content:
- Practical actions: They seek happiness and self-realization.
- Technical actions: They refer to the natural world and seek its transformation.
- Poetic actions: They have to do with art and aesthetics.
- According to the Degree of Consciousness:
- Conscious: The acting subject is present in the action.
- Unconscious: They can be reflexes.
- Learned: Done automatically.
- According to the Will:
- Voluntary: We do them intentionally.
- Involuntary: We do them without a deliberation process.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow, an American philosopher, developed significant research on human motivation. He established the major needs that arise in humans and the order in which they appear. He distinguishes two types of needs: deficit needs and growth (or development) needs.
Since a child is born, needs emerge. If they are even minimally met, the following needs arise. But if a need is not minimally met, the person becomes fixated at that level and cannot continue their personal development. The purpose of this personal development, at the top of the pyramid, is self-realization, i.e., the full development of the person.
Human needs, and their order of appearance, are:
- Physiological needs (within deficit needs)
- Safety needs
- Belongingness and love needs (family)
- Esteem needs (self-esteem and esteem from others)
After these, growth needs arise; they are all moral values: friendship, love, justice, hope, solidarity, etc. Maslow found that self-actualized people were more motivated and satisfied; if these people went through difficulties and suffering, they endured them best without reducing their motivation.
The main difference between deficit needs and growth needs, according to Maslow, is functional autonomy. Growth needs become detached from the reason that gave rise to them, existing for their own value or the satisfaction they produce. This is why Maslow argues that people who fulfill growth needs are more satisfied and self-realized than those who remain at the level of deficit needs.