3
3. Ask whether your maxim is conceivable in a world ruled by the universal law
In a real world if all people earned ZAR 620 000 000.00 for a year’s work, there would be so much income and spending going around that markets will eventually cease to exist. Businesses will stop competing for prices, thus leading to a downfall in the economy. There will also be shortages of products and services as everyone will want everything that money can buy. Market demand and supply will be non-existent. Therefore it is very likely that this maxim is not conceivable in the real world ruled by the universal law.
4. Ask whether you would rationally act on your maxim in such a world.
If I had ZAR 620 000 000.00 in one year, I probably would be overspending and overindulging in unnecessary items and food. I would have overeaten, gotten sick too early and wasted too many unimportant things. I would be really really rich but then what? What would be my purpose thereafter? Therefore I think that I would never act rationally in such a world.
5 what would Kant probably have said about Whitey Basson (or you) earning ZAR 620,000,000.00?
Based on what I understand about Kant’s theory, I would assume that he would have accepted the earnings. As Whitey Basson has not stolen from anyone, neither has he broken any rules. He did build the company into one of the most successful ventures of today. He invested his own time and intelligence into growing this company. The income that they earn now is based on the hard work of Whitey Basson, thus this would have passed Kant’s theory. An action is said to have moral worth if the maxim upon which the agent acts cites the purpose of conforming to a moral requirement’s person’s action has moral worth when she does her duty purely for the sake of duty or does the right thing for the right reason. Kant himself believed that it is impossible to know whether anyone’s action has ever had moral worth .it might appear to someone that he has acted entirely from duty, but this could always be an illusion of self-interest of wanting to see oneself in the best most noble light .this indicates that agent are not always the best judges of their own maxims or motives.
