Save
Tweet
Share
Aeon Video has a monthly newsletter!
Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
Can a lie ever be noble? Why Kant believed even a life-saving fib was immoral
To the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, the ethics of honesty were clear-cut: telling the truth, no matter the consequences, was a ‘categorical imperative’ – a moral duty. Taking chilling (and chilly) inspiration from Stanley Kubrick’s film The Shining (1980), this brief animated snippet details Kant’s inflexible perspective on truth-telling, and its contrast with utilitarianism, which emphasises good outcomes over actions that are always right or wrong.
Aeon is not-for-profit and free for everyone
Make a donationGet Aeon straight to your inbox
Join our newsletter
video
Philosophy of mind
Forget babbling and toddling – mindreading is babies’ most incredible skill
7 minutes
video
Knowledge
What can a Kurosawa classic tell us about reality, knowledge and truth?
5 minutes
video
Meaning and the good life
To know or not to know? Lillian weighs the costs of a life-changing genetic test
10 minutes
video
Chemistry
Liquid experiments show how beautiful things can happen when chemicals meet
6 minutes
video
Philosophy of mind
Caring for the vulnerable opens gateways to our richest, deepest brain states
7 minutes
video
History of ideas
How did ‘personal responsibility’ evolve into its opposite, ‘everyone for themselves’?
52 minutes
video
Thinkers and theories
Bigger isn’t better – the renegade ‘Buddhist economics’ of E F Schumacher
30 minutes
video
Dance and theatre
Close-up on kabuki – the colourful ‘pure entertainment’ of Japan’s Edo period
31 minutes
video
Cosmology
Building ‘bigger and better’ has pushed cosmology forward. Can it take it any further?
7 minutes