Depth 1 · 34 s
The queue
Leo slips into the canteen queue beside a friend - "it's just one person". Kant's test asks what would happen if everyone followed the rule behind your action. If it only works because others don't, you are making an exception of yourself.
About this video
There is a long queue for the school canteen. Leo is hungry and at the back. He sees a friend near the front and slips in beside him. "It's just one person," he says. "It makes no difference." Is he right?
There is a simple test, made famous by Immanuel Kant: what if everyone did it? Don't ask what happens if you do it once; ask what would happen if the rule behind your action were a rule for everyone. The rule behind Leo's action is something like "when I'm hungry and see a friend near the front, I can slip in." If every hungry pupil followed it, there would be no queue at all, just a crowd with the strongest and pushiest first. Leo's plan only works because everyone else keeps to the queue. He is making an exception of himself: using a rule he needs others not to follow.
Kant's own example was a promise. Suppose you borrow money, promising to pay it back, knowing you won't. If everyone made false promises whenever it suited them, soon nobody would believe a promise at all, and your false promise wouldn't even work. So making one is making an exception of yourself.
The test needs care. "What if everyone became a dentist?" would be a disaster, but being a dentist isn't wrong. The test isn't about everyone doing the same job; it is about the rule you act on, and "choose a job you are good at" works fine when everyone follows it. The same test shows why dropping "just one wrapper" in a park matters: one wrapper hardly harms anyone, but the rule behind it would cover the park if everyone followed it. Like the golden rule, the test asks you to see yourself as one of everyone, not a special case. This video goes with the What If Everyone Did It? lesson of Ethics Level 1 on Knaph.
This video shows depth 1 of What if everyone did it?.
Learn What if everyone did it?Transcript
- 0:00A long queue. Leo slips in beside a friend near the front.
- 0:05It's just one person. It makes no difference. Is he right?
- 0:11What if everyone followed his rule? No queue. Just a crowd.
- 0:17Kant's example. If everyone made false promises, nobody would believe one.
- 0:23It's about the rule, not the job. Just one wrapper, from everyone.
- 0:29Don't make an exception of yourself.