Treating Persons as Means

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Treating Persons as Means
Samuel Kerstein, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2019/04/15
I found this the day after writing my own short post on 'value' but it serves nicely as a clarification of the concept described by Kant on treating people as ends-in-themselves and not means. First posted on Saturday! this article in the Stanford Encyclopedia explores that idea. "The entry begins by focusing on the roots in Kant of discussion of treating persons merely as means. It then considers (morally neutral) notions of using another or treating him as a means, notions that are less straightforward than it might seem." By 'less straightforward' what we mean is a bunch of cases where people argue that it is ethical to treat people as means. More...