Dr. Seuss and Philosophy - Jacob M. Held [149]
10. Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, 58.
11. John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (Ontario: Broadview Press, 2000), 14.
12. Mill, Utilitarianism, 18.
13. For a good discussion of the Good Life and Dr. Seuss, see Benjamin Rider, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go! The Examined, Happy Life,” in the present volume.
14. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics in The Complete Works of Aristotle, Vol. 2, ed. Jonathan Barnes (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984), 1743 [1103b24].
15. Thanks to Ron Novy for offering helpful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter.
Chapter 10
Thanks go to Jacob Held for offering insightful commentary on an earlier draft of this essay.
1. A similar interpretation of Kant’s basic ethical ideas can be found in Alan Donagan, The Theory of Morality (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1977). Furthermore, it is not uncommon for philosophers to offer revisions to the theories of other philosophers; this is so even for philosophers of Kant’s stature. The idea is that by refining theories that are already quite plausible, philosophers move closer and closer to the truth (which is out there).
2. Horton does, however, utter this sentence in the 2007 motion picture adaption of Horton Hears a Who!
3. Immanuel Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, 2nd ed., trans. Lewis White Beck (New York: Library of the Liberal Arts, 1990), 38.
4. Kant believed that, from this formulation, he could also derive obligations against suicide, to develop one’s latent but natural talents, and to offer aid to those in need. Regarding the last, see Kant’s Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, 40. Scholars are divided about whether Kant’s derivations are completely successful.
5. Immanuel Kant, “On a Supposed Right to Lie from Altruistic Motives,” in Critique of Practical Reason and Other Writings in Moral Philosophy, ed. and trans. Lewis White Beck (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949), 348.
6. This sort of dilemma is sometimes expressed via an actual historical situation. Dutch fishermen attempted to smuggle Jews to England during World War II. Sometimes Dutch fishing boats would be stopped by a Nazi patrol boat. A Nazi officer would inquire of the Dutch fisherman where he was headed and who was on board. If you were the fisherman (and assuming no third alternative), what would you do? Should you lie to the officer to protect the life of innocent people or answer the question honestly, knowing that the innocents in your cargo hold will undoubtedly die a horrible death at Auschwitz?
7. For example, Russ Shafer-Landau comments: “Kant does not need to defend the existence of absolute moral duties. His philosophy can, for instance, justify lying to the inquiring murder. Kant’s hatred of lying made him overlook a crucial element of his own view—namely, that the morality of action depends on one’s maxim.” The Fundamentals of Ethics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 157. See also James Rachels, The Elements of Moral Philosophy, 4th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003), 122–27.
8. Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, 46.
9. There is also a sense in which persons, by willfully choosing to not uphold their ethical obligations, fail to respect their own inherent dignity. This entails that we have moral duties to ourselves and not merely to other persons, which (some argue) is another controversial feature of Kant’s view.
Chapter 11
1. For an account of relativism, utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, and Aristotle’s virtue ethics see Jacob M. Held and Eric N. Wilson, “What Would You Do If Your Mother Asked You? A Brief Introduction to Ethics,” in the present volume. For a different assessment of Kant’s ethics see Dean Kowalski, “Horton Hears You, Too! Seuss and Kant on Respecting Persons,” in the present volume.
2. John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct in The Middle Works of John Dewey, Vol. 14, ed. Jo Ann Boydston (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983), 150.
3. See Sartre’s famous