Kant on Human Dignity – GS 4 UPSC Ethics Concept & 2014 PYQ Explained | KM Pathi — Transcript

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1. 0:00objects have a prize humans have dignity
2. 0:04let's
3. 0:06[Music]
4. 0:13explore last month as I was going
5. 0:15through newspapers especially Regional
6. 0:17newspapers I couldn't help
7. 0:19notice a surprising news item three
8. 0:23different
9. 0:24locations three different places one in
10. 0:27tamilnad one in shilong and and Kashmir
11. 0:31three different newspapers but all of
12. 0:34them carried a similar news item and the
13. 0:36news story was about rescuing child
14. 0:38labor and The Moment I Saw the three
15. 0:40news items one thing that struck me was
16. 0:43can we use humans as
17. 0:46means and that brings me to Canan ethics
18. 0:49or Canan principle of respect for
19. 0:52persons and today that's what we'll be
20. 0:54discussing let me start by
21. 0:56quoting K's categorical imperative
22. 1:00and the imperative reads as act so that
23. 1:04you treat Humanity whether in your own
24. 1:06person or in that of another never as a
25. 1:09means only but always at the same time
26. 1:13as an
27. 1:14end now the key word here is never as
28. 1:19means you cannot use humans as means you
29. 1:23cannot use humans as instruments that's
30. 1:25what cont I'm trying to tell you here
31. 1:27and word I say respect for person
32. 1:29principle that means you have to learn
33. 1:31to respect the human
34. 1:33being and when you read such stories of
35. 1:37child labor or human trafficking what
36. 1:39you notice is we actually we
37. 1:43actually uh don't respect that principle
38. 1:47there are three things in this categoric
39. 1:49imperative which one has to take note of
40. 1:52firstly what KH says is we should always
41. 1:55treat Humanity in ourselves and in
42. 1:58others
43. 2:00as an end in themselves never as means
44. 2:04in other words what he's trying to tell
45. 2:06us here is we have to learn to respect
46. 2:08Humanity in others and ourselves as well
47. 2:12secondly if you read the imperative very
48. 2:15carefully the first word is act so Kant
49. 2:19is talking about acting not about
50. 2:22feeling because displaying of respect to
51. 2:25other person is about acting in a
52. 2:28certain way or not acting in a certain
53. 2:31way thirdly what is noteworthy about
54. 2:34this categoric imperative is Kant is
55. 2:36very very clear here that we should
56. 2:39refrain from using Humanity as means we
57. 2:42should always look at humans or I should
58. 2:45say Humanity as an end in themselves and
59. 2:48this is what we'll be exploring in
60. 2:49today's episode and in fact we'll be
61. 2:51exploring this whole concept of uh not
62. 2:54using humans as means from public
63. 2:56service perspective also next day when
64. 2:58you go to a tea shop
65. 3:00and if you happen to notice a child
66. 3:02serving your tea can you imagine how the
67. 3:05child feels just look at life from the
68. 3:08child's perspective do you think the
69. 3:10child is in control of his life or next
70. 3:13time when you go to a tire shop to fix a
71. 3:14puncher when you know as a young boy
72. 3:17helping the mechanic fix the car or fix
73. 3:21a bike or fix a puncher can you imagine
74. 3:24how does a boy feel not to be in control
75. 3:27of his
76. 3:28life now what actually happens is when
77. 3:31somebody uses you as means what happens
78. 3:34is you lose control over your own
79. 3:37life and humans we are all human beings
80. 3:40as human beings we all have an end goal
81. 3:43we all have an end in life we all plan
82. 3:46we all have something to look forward to
83. 3:50and our daily actions are focused on
84. 3:53achieving those ends or achieving those
85. 3:56goals but when somebody uses you you
86. 3:58lose it capacity to act freely you lose
87. 4:02the capacity to perform
88. 4:04actions and this way we lose our
89. 4:08autonomy when I say lose our autonomy
90. 4:10that means we are not in control of Our
91. 4:12Lives it's somebody else who dictates
92. 4:16your life it's somebody else who takes
93. 4:18control over what you do in
94. 4:21life so when you end up using somebody
95. 4:24as means that's what the person loses in
96. 4:282013 there was a case study of child
97. 4:30labor let me read out the case study
98. 4:33sasi in Tamil NAD is known for its
99. 4:36manufacturing clusters on firecrackers
100. 4:38and matches the local economy of the
101. 4:40area is largely dependent on
102. 4:42firecrackers industry it has led to
103. 4:44tangible Economic Development and
104. 4:46improved standard of living in the area
105. 4:48so far as child labor norms for
106. 4:50hazardous Industries like firecracker
107. 4:51Industries are concerned International
108. 4:53labor organization has set the minimum
109. 4:55age as 18 years in India however this
110. 4:58age is 14 years
111. 5:00the units and Industrial clusters of
112. 5:01firecrackers can be classified into
113. 5:03registered and non-registered entities
114. 5:05one typical unit is household based work
115. 5:08household based work means children
116. 5:11under the supervision of the parents SL
117. 5:13relatives to evade child labor Norms
118. 5:15several unit projects themselves as
119. 5:17household based works but employe
120. 5:19children from outside needless to say
121. 5:21employing children saves the cost of
122. 5:23these units leading to higher profits to
123. 5:26the owners this is the key sentence that
124. 5:28everybody needs to focus on needless to
125. 5:31say employing children saves the cost
126. 5:34for these units leading to higher
127. 5:36profits to the owner that means owners
128. 5:38are using the children to make more
129. 5:41money that means children are being used
130. 5:44as means on your visit let's take the
131. 5:47case study forward on your visit to one
132. 5:49of the units at sari the owner takes you
133. 5:51around the unit which has about 10 to 15
134. 5:54children below 14 years of age the owner
135. 5:56tells you that in his household based
136. 5:58unit the children are all his relatives
137. 6:00you notice that several children smirk
138. 6:03when the owner tells you this on deeper
139. 6:05inquiry you figure out that neither the
140. 6:08owner nor the children are able to
141. 6:09satisfactory establish their
142. 6:11relationship with each other so this was
143. 6:13a case about child labor where children
144. 6:16were being used by a third party if you
145. 6:18notice a case study very carefully
146. 6:20there's one sentence which you need to
147. 6:22focus on and the sentence focuses on or
148. 6:26the sentence says that the how household
149. 6:30unit owners were using the children
150. 6:33because that contributed to more
151. 6:35profitability at the moment these owners
152. 6:39started using their children what
153. 6:40exactly they were doing was they were
154. 6:42using these kids as means to make more
155. 6:45money now there's a clear violation of
156. 6:48Canan principle of respect for
157. 6:52person and let's explore one more
158. 6:55situation this was a professional setup
159. 6:58where children were being used just
160. 7:01imagine if your friend uses
161. 7:03you just imagine your roommate uses you
162. 7:08how would you feel in 2003 there was a
163. 7:11movie called School of Rock I don't know
164. 7:13how many of you seen the movie and the
165. 7:14movie revolv on two roommates and both
166. 7:17were
167. 7:18musicians and one was Dy Finn who were
168. 7:22more of a failed musician his rock music
169. 7:25career didn't take off and other was Ned
170. 7:28and Ned was was a substitute music
171. 7:30teacher in a school and Finn Dy Finn the
172. 7:34failed musician was actually sponging
173. 7:35off Ned he was living off Ned it so
174. 7:40happens one day Ned was out and there
175. 7:43was a phone call from a local uh School
176. 7:46principal and this lady this school
177. 7:49principal lady she wanted a substitute
178. 7:52teacher on an emergency
179. 7:53bases and uh Finn that is dwey didn't
180. 7:57even think twice because he needed the
181. 8:00money he needed a job so he just took up
182. 8:04the offer of being a substitute teacher
183. 8:06impersonating net can you imagine your
184. 8:10friend uses your identity and gets a job
185. 8:14in a different school without even
186. 8:16telling
187. 8:17you and what is more interesting is Finn
188. 8:20goes to the school takes the job
189. 8:22continues masquerading or pretending or
190. 8:26impersonating Ned all the while and he
191. 8:29slowly starts putting his roots there
192. 8:32and slowly the kids take on to him and
193. 8:35slowly he was able to build a small rock
194. 8:37band not realizing one day his sherad
195. 8:40will be
196. 8:42caught and yes fin Sharad was caught
197. 8:47sooner than later and can you imagine
198. 8:50how Ned would have felt being used like
199. 8:52this by his own
200. 8:55roommate and what was so shocking was
201. 8:58when Dy picked up this offer he didn't
202. 8:59even realize how Net's professional
203. 9:02Personal Image will be affected by all
204. 9:04this can you imagine can you imagine
205. 9:07dwey is living off his roommate and he
206. 9:10had no qualms about impersonating Ned at
207. 9:14all and in a way in a way destroying
208. 9:17Ned's professional and Personal
209. 9:20Image so look at the two situations I
210. 9:23discussed one was where a organization a
211. 9:27setup a cracker of firecracker unit
212. 9:30using children that's different look at
213. 9:33this your own friend impersonating you
214. 9:37using
215. 9:38you now my larger question is do you
216. 9:40think your friend has a right to use you
217. 9:43as a means just think about it don't you
218. 9:46think when your friend uses you as means
219. 9:48he somehow he or she somehow violates
220. 9:51his basic principle of disrespecting
221. 9:53Humanity or disrespecting you think
222. 9:56about it just imagine next time when you
223. 10:00take a
224. 10:01uber and the Uber driver is taking to a
225. 10:04certain destination don't you think
226. 10:06you're using the Uber driver as a means
227. 10:09to achieve an
228. 10:11end don't you think by using the driver
229. 10:13to reach to a certain destination you're
230. 10:15violating this Canon principle of
231. 10:18respect for
232. 10:20persons what do you
233. 10:24say okay let's take it the let's clarify
234. 10:27things here now when you use a Uber
235. 10:30driver to take you to a certain spot
236. 10:33you're not actually using him why
237. 10:35because the driver consense or agrees to
238. 10:38take you to that spot why because his
239. 10:40end is to make a
240. 10:42livelihood and your end is to reach to a
241. 10:45certain spot so both the ends collude
242. 10:49both the ends meet your end is also
243. 10:51taken care of and the driver's end is
244. 10:54also taken care of his livelihood is
245. 10:56taken care of and you reach your
246. 10:58destination so both the the ends
247. 11:00collude so in such cases you're not
248. 11:03actually using them you're not violating
249. 11:07anybody's personal moral
250. 11:09autonomy now what we need to understand
251. 11:11here is how is this principle relevant
252. 11:15to Public Services how is this principle
253. 11:19relevant to today's modern corporations
254. 11:21that's what we need to understand and
255. 11:24that's what we'll be talking about now
256. 11:26in fact that was a question upsc also
257. 11:27had couple of years back implications of
258. 11:31this whole principle for public services
259. 11:34corporates and for us as human beings
260. 11:37let's take it up as I've often said in
261. 11:39classrooms that in public services a
262. 11:42public servant deals with human
263. 11:44life and this categorical imperative of
264. 11:47C deals with treatment of
265. 11:50humanity a public servant is expected to
266. 11:54treat every single person who comes to
267. 11:56his office fairly imp
268. 11:59partially without violating the moral
269. 12:04autonomy so that's the first most
270. 12:06important implication of Cent principle
271. 12:09for public services treating Humanity
272. 12:12fairly and respectfully oh by the way
273. 12:15acting
274. 12:17respectfully that's the first thing this
275. 12:20categoric imperative forbids us from
276. 12:23using other humans as
277. 12:25means in fact in our personal relations
278. 12:28also we have to learn not to violate
279. 12:31other person's moral autonomy we have to
280. 12:34learn to treat the other person
281. 12:36respectfully we have to ensure that the
282. 12:39other person has freedom of choice that
283. 12:41is we don't control their lives we don't
284. 12:44impose ourselves or the other person so
285. 12:47that's the second part no one likes to
286. 12:49be used that's the essence of this
287. 12:52categorical
288. 12:54imperative and this is something every
289. 12:57administrator needs to remember that you
290. 12:59cannot use a citizen to further your
291. 13:03career when you're serving somebody you
292. 13:06cannot use the person who served as a
293. 13:09mechanism to improve your career
294. 13:11prospects a public servant needs to
295. 13:13remember that every human being has has
296. 13:16an inherent
297. 13:18dignity you have to respect
298. 13:21that and that's the most important
299. 13:24implication of C for public services and
300. 13:27please remember every human being has a
301. 13:30dignity and learn to respect that now
302. 13:33today we
303. 13:34explored the Canan principle of respect
304. 13:37for
305. 13:39persons which implies not to use humans
306. 13:41as means and this was precisely the
307. 13:44question upsc had in the year 2014 and
308. 13:47the question read somewhat like this
309. 13:49humans should always be treated as ends
310. 13:51in themselves and never merely as means
311. 13:54explain the meaning and significance of
312. 13:56the statement giving its implications in
313. 13:58the modern technoeconomic society if you
314. 14:01look at the question very carefully it
315. 14:04revolves around this word Shuan should
316. 14:07not be used as means to an end and this
317. 14:10is what we discussed
318. 14:12today and precisely why can't said this
319. 14:15is because no human likes to be used and
320. 14:18please
321. 14:19remember objects have a
322. 14:24price humans have dignity and learn to
323. 14:28respect that
324. 14:31happy
325. 14:33learning