Depth 1 · 34 s
Not a homework machine
Lena only talks to Tom on the days before a maths test. She is never unkind - so what is wrong? Kant's second test - never treat a person only as a tool for your goals, but always also as someone with goals of their own.
About this video
Tom is the best at maths in Lena's class. Lena only talks to Tom on the days before a maths test: she is friendly, asks how he is, and then asks for help with the homework. After the test she walks past him without a word. Tom has started to notice. What is wrong here, if Lena never says anything unkind?
A hammer is a tool. You pick it up when you need it and put it away when you don't, and nobody asks the hammer what it wants. Lena is treating Tom as if he were a tool: useful, picked up when needed and ignored the rest of the time. Immanuel Kant put this into his second famous test. In his words, treat people "never merely as a means, but always at the same time as an end". In plain words: never treat a person only as a tool for your goals; always treat them also as someone with goals of their own.
"Only" is the key word. We need each other's help all the time, and that is fine. When the bus driver takes you to school you are using the driver's skill to reach your goal, but not only as a tool: the driver chose the job, is paid, and you say thank you. What is wrong is using someone in a way they haven't agreed to, or that ignores what they want. Tom hasn't agreed to be a homework machine; he thought Lena was his friend.
The test explains many things we feel are wrong. Lying to someone treats their mind as a tool, making them believe what suits you. Pushing the stranger off the footbridge in the trolley problem uses his body as a tool to stop the tram. And it explains why every person matters, whoever they are: a tool's value is in its use, but a person is not just useful. This video goes with the People Are Not Tools lesson of Ethics Level 1 on Knaph.
This video shows depth 1 of People are not tools.
Learn People are not toolsTranscript
- 0:00Before a maths test, Lena is friendly to Tom, and asks for help.
- 0:05After the test, she walks past without a word. Tom has noticed.
- 0:11Kant said, never treat a person only as a tool, always as someone with goals.
- 0:17The key word is only. A bus driver chose the job, is paid, is thanked.
- 0:23Lying uses a mind. The footbridge uses a body. Every person matters.
- 0:29People are not tools.