Morality Is a Central Theme of Immanuel Kants Philosophy - Essay Example

Morality is a central theme of Emmanuel Kant’s philosophy. Kant was a systematic thinker and a rationalist, which is why his concept of morality proposed that moral actions are guided by reason and not sensory impulses. As such, morality as an ethical principle is applied to all human beings who are rational. So, reason plays an important role in Kant’s philosophy of morality which determines the motive of an action, rather than its consequence deeming it deontological. An individual could, thus, be good or bad based on motives that spurred an action regardless of how good a consequence might be. Gone, Baby, Gone is a film directed by Ben Affleck which follows the case of a kidnapped girl, Amanda, whose family approaches the Boston-based private investigator, Patrick Kenzie, to follow up the case. Patrick, along with his partner, Angie Gennaro, discovers the perplexing and highly complex web of corruption as they go about investigating the case. As the case progresses along the length of the film, the lines between good and bad are nearly blurred due to interest and mysterious motives. Based on Kant’s moral philosophy, Amanda’s uncle was motivated by greed and a dishonest intention of freeing Amanda from her failing parents. Although the consequences would have been good for Amanda as well as her aunt, the action was immoral due to its immoral motives.
As Patrick uncovers the corruption embedded in the case, it becomes clear that Amanda’s aunt and uncle are immoral. Their scheme to free Amanda from her neglectful parents would have had a good consequence as the girl would have escaped her parents’ neglect and would have come under the care of more responsible guardians. However, Kant’s theory of morality depends not on the consequence but on the motive which had undoubtedly been immoral and treacherous. Through a well-planned plot, her uncle was able to stage Amanda's abduction and then approach Patrick for a fake investigation. Amanda’s uncle had been aiming to cleverly fool the investigators and obtain the traded drug money by involving many of the investigation police officials. In fact, man personnel from the police department had been involved including Captain Doyle who had hidden Amanda in his house along with his wife. The kidnap had been attempted with great planning and dishonest motive which involved immense corruption from the reputed police department of Boston.
Therefore, all the individuals involved in the staged kidnapping of Amanda had a bad motive for their immoral actions. Read More