@philosophyminis: You're having dinner with some colleagues when somebody clicks their fingers and says, 'Waiter, here, now.' Somebody exits a taxi without having said hello, goodbye, or thank you. A government executes a traitor to make an example of them. What do all of these have in common? Well, according to Immanuel Kant, they are treating people as a means to an end, and they are all wrong. Kant argued that there is an unconditional dignity that comes with being a rational human being, and we should always work to respect that. He said that we should act to treat humanity, in every case, as an end, and never as a means only, because people are not tools to be used, or pawns in our plans. They have their own intrinsic value. Kant argues for this by saying that all rational human beings value their own existence, and since the world is made up of these rational beings, we have to make the universal claim that all rational beings deserve value. Everyone matters. Of course, Kant was not naïve. He was well aware that the world depends upon serving, helping, and working for each other. And this is why his formulation deliberately uses the wording that we shouldn't 'only,' or 'merely,' use somebody as a means to an end. Always respect the humanity of the taxi driver, the waiter, or the criminal. Everyone is valuable as a human being. So, in all of your interactions with other people, ask yourself the question: am I respecting this person's humanity, or am I using them as a means to an end? It's a practical and useful tool that we can all live by.

Jonny Thomson

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Friday 02 January 2026 15:44:05 GMT