?Out of the seven ethical theories studied throughout the first half of the semester, I chose to write about Kant's theory of ethics. I feel Kant's theory of ethics is best because it informs society to always treat each other with respect and to do the right thing in any situation for the right reason, simply because it's the right thing to do in that given situation. Kant believed that everyone should be treated with dignity and value. Everyone is born with a reasoning ability which always allows us to know what our duty is. Kant described his ethical theory by two common guidelines given by reason: the hypothetical imperative, which dictates a given course of action to reach a specific end; and the categorical imperative, which dictates an action is moral when it is performed out of duty for the right reasons. Kant's first Categorical Imperative is: "Act only from those personal rules that you can at the same time will to be moral laws." Kant believed that moral rules are universal and impartial.
             The second Categorical Imperative is: "Act in regard to all persons as to treat them as ends in themselves and never simply as means." Kant believes that people look at their personal rules and only act on the ones that they will to be universal and wants people to see others as equals and not use them as an end, because everyone deserves respect. The final part of the categorical imperative is to always act form duty for the right reasons.
             Kant's theory of ethics has been critiqued by many individuals. Many people feel that Kant has not told us when an act is a moral duty that some acts are deemed permissible but fail the categorical imperative test and some acts are impermissible but pass the categorical imperative test. Some feel that there are also exceptions to moral rules. In a given situation where the moral thing to do is to lie to save a person's life, Kant would say that l...