Draft:Archive/2024/Space fleet academy
| “ | Thus the third practical principle follows [from the first two] as the ultimate condition of their harmony with practical reason: the idea of the will of every rational being as a universally legislating will. | ” |
—Third formulation of the categorical imperative, Immanuel Kant | ||
Course Overview
[edit | edit source]Space Fleet Academy
[edit | edit source]| “ | As a rational being man necessarily wills that all his faculties should be developed, inasmuch as they are given him for all sorts of possible purposes. | ” |
—Reflection on the categorical imperative, Immanuel Kant | ||
The space fleet academy is a learning resource designated to develop the basic standards for the entrance qualification for a hypothetical space fleet. This is considered useful because sooner or later there should be a space fleet and sensible personal criteria and civilisatory convergence criteria will obviously be advantageous.
Civilisatory progress is a global issue of the galactic community
[edit | edit source]| “ | Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always as an end and never as a means only. | ” |
—Second formulation of the categorical imperative, Immanuel Kant | ||
Obviously the galactic community, which so far does not appear to have taken any noticeable interest in planet Earth, must be interested in peaceful coexistence and thus ethical standards. With insufficient ethical standards a wide range of interspecies problems are conceivable, which will not be discussed here. Ethical standards also do appear to be necessary to deal with the increasing complexity and power of advancing technology and therefore at some point, space fleet technology.
Thus low ethical standards must logically cause multiple issues with space fleet academy.
Space law
[edit | edit source]| “ | Act as if the maxims of your action were to become through your will a universal law of nature. | ” |
—First formulation of the categorical imperative, Immanuel Kant | ||
The space law of planet Earth does not yet regulate space sufficiently and neither is there any recognition of extraterrestrial life forms as life. Consequently, as far as the current law is concerned, the highest ethical standards are recommended. This appears to be trivially the best choice.
Consequently the natural laws inherently present in a situation must be deduced without guiding principles and to make things worse extraterrestrial life forms may have their own view on natural laws, e.g. may have different and more natural laws than are usually respected on planet Earth. It follows that cadets must be able to understand applicable natural laws, deduce potential views of extraterrestrial life forms and must be able to deduce a prudent stance towards potentially valid natural laws that are not codified in the form of implementing ordinances.
According to Kant's reasoning, we first have a perfect duty not to act by maxims that result in logical contradictions when we attempt to universalize them.