An affirmative approach is the policy of offering minority groups priority in receiving opportunities like employment or education. As a way to compensate for certain people who were subject to significant oppression or repression within society using various methods to exploit their inequalities, affirmative action can be considered. Kant created a philosophical model that is based on freewill that attempts to argue against affirmative actions, even though different philosophers may have different views (Johnson 2019, 2019). Kant’s free-will argument suggests that human behavior should be influenced by duty. He argues that the best will is one who aspires and executes duty. As such, duty should determine the morality of our deeds. The argument of the categorical imperative was created by him. It is founded on two principles, the principle of universality as well as the concept of human dignity. Johnson, 2019, emphasizes maxims that can be widely generalized and easily accepted. Contrary to the first principle, which emphasizes having each other treated as a goal and not a way to achieve it, the second principle is about treating one another as an objective. This argument suggests that human beings have intrinsic worth.
Kant argues in these arguments that discrimination towards humans is undesirable and immoral. Kant’s argument is that affirmative actions are meant to give a particular group preferential treatment because of their race, religion, nationality, or any other characteristic. (Baron (2018) Every group in the same social position should receive equal treatment and fair treatment. In the above example, Kantian ethics would use the duty path to decide between Jimmy or Molly. Kant would assess all qualifications and choose the most suitable candidate for the job. He wouldn’t prefer any applicant based only on their past. Jimmy would be the winner because of his previous duties and being more qualified than Molly for this job. Jimmy’s expertise is in institution leadership.