Kant's One Rule for Right and Wrong

Having established in the previous lecture that Kant wants ethics grounded in pure reason alone, Lee Braver now tackles the harder problem: how can a rule with any real content come from logic alone, with nothing about human nature to draw on? The lecture unpacks the key machinery of Kant's ethics: the difference between hypothetical and categorical imperatives, and why only the categorical imperative counts as truly moral. Braver walks through the famous lying promise example to show how universalizing an immoral action reveals a hidden contradiction, not unlike an X-ray exposing what's beneath the surface. He then introduces Kant's second formulation, the demand that we treat people as ends in themselves and never merely as means. Using examples from Judge Roy Bean to Batman, Braver illustrates both the power and the rigidity of Kant's system. Every moral theory has its trade-offs, and Kant's uncompromising absolutes are no exception.