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What does it mean to act in a moral way?<\/span><\/p>\n One of the answers the philosopher Immanuel Kant formulated to this question can be paraphrased this way:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNever treat people merely as a means to an end, but always as an end in and of themselves, too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n We all treat people as means sometimes, and that\u2019s okay. But others don\u2019t exist solely to meet our needs. Each individual possesses their own rationality, agency, and dignity. Each has their own purpose, destiny, <\/span>telos<\/span><\/i> \u2014 their own ultimate end. <\/span><\/p>\n If someone makes you think they really care about you when they were just looking for sex or invites you to what seems like a social lunch but turns out to be a business pitch, you\u2019re apt to feel <\/span>used<\/span><\/i> \u2014 that you were treated as an object, an instrument, instead of a human being.<\/span><\/p>\n Most of us avoid acting like a tool by outright treating others as such. But we can all, especially in close relationships, lose sight of the fact that others have their own ends, apart from what we want from them.<\/span><\/p>\n You want your kid to take over the family business. But is that what\u2019s right for him? <\/span><\/p>\n You want your girlfriend to move across the country for you. But is that what\u2019s best for her?<\/span><\/p>\n You want your spouse to change some trait, but what if it\u2019s part of what makes them, them and helps carry them towards their life\u2019s purpose?<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, in relationships, people have a common end, and each person makes compromises so that they can reach that place together.<\/span><\/p>\n But even as you journey towards this shared destination, you should never approach someone solely through the lens of “What can you do for me?\u201d but also ask, \u201cHow can I help you become who you\u2019re supposed to be?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What does it mean to act in a moral way? One of the answers the philosopher Immanuel Kant formulated to this question can be paraphrased this way: \u201cNever treat people merely as a means to an end, but always as an end in and of themselves, too.\u201d We all treat people as means sometimes, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":178839,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42285],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-178836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-relationships"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ends-Not-Means-BLANK-538x280.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ends-Not-Means-BLANK-768x469.jpg","aom":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ends-Not-Means-BLANK-372x230.jpg","reactor-320":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ends-Not-Means-BLANK-320x196.jpg","reactor-640":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ends-Not-Means-BLANK-640x391.jpg","reactor-1280":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ends-Not-Means-BLANK-1280x782.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178836"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178840,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178836\/revisions\/178840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178836"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=178836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}