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Ethical Code And Ethical Codes

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A personal ethical code is something everyone has. People may be aware of it to different degrees, or have differing levels of definition, but no one is entirely unprincipled. Ethical codes may be based off different factors such as religion, society, and family. My personal ethical code is derived from simply one source, the writings of Immanuel Kant. I find that the code described by him is the only one that is truly justified, and therefore the only one I would be able to follow without cognitive dissonance or feeling I was doing the wrong thing. However, as this is my personal code, and I don’t want to merely rephrase Kant, I interpret the rules much differently than he did, and in some places make modifications or draw radically different conclusions. Otherwise, My ethical code is based on following The Categorical Imperative whenever possible. The Categorical Imperative is the foundation of my metaethics. In making actions there are many “Hypothetical imperatives” we could take. These are straight out of kant and were statements like: “In order to do X, I must do Y.” A moral imperative is different in that it is merely “Do Y.” A moral imperative can tell us which hypothetical imperative to pick. To have a real moral imperative it must be independent of context or situation. It has to be something that can always be followed. The Categorical Imperative can do this through it’s three rules, which fit the above criteria. This is justified, at least to me, through

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