Steve Andrews: The rewards of doing the right thing

You very likely didn't click on this article in the hope of being treated to a philosophy lecture, but I feel strangely compelled to talk about Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative. Don't worry – I'll be as brief as I can. Kant famously argued that humans show true moral worth only when they do something because it's right. If they do something because they expect to benefit, he said, their morality is compromised. Extending this line of thought, Kant suggested we should act only on principles that we would be happy to see applied universally. This constitutes the aforementioned cat...