The idea also shows up in discussions of animal rights, with the idea that if they have rights, animals must be treated as ends in themselves. This can be used as an argument against euthanasia, suicide and other behaviours that damage ourselves. We shouldn't treat ourselves as a means to our own ends instead we should respect our inherent worth. We say that we don't think that we should use other people, which is a plain English way of saying that we shouldn't treat other people as a means to our own ends.
Most of us agree with that - though we don't put it so formally. If a person is an end-in-themself it means their inherent value doesn't depend on anything else - it doesn't depend on whether the person is enjoying their life, or making other people's lives better. As Professor Friedrich writes in his introduction to this volume: The problem of freedom, the freedom of the human personality to unfold and fulfill its higher. The fact that we are human has value in itself. The philosopher Immanuel Kant said that rational human beings should be treated as an end in themselves and not as a means to something else. Immanuel Kant (UK: / k æ n t /, US: / k n t /, German: manuel kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher (a native of the Kingdom of Prussia) and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Immanuel Kant (UK: / k n t /, US: / k n t /, German: manuel kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher (a native of the Kingdom of Prussia) and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. The word "end" in this phrase has the same meaning as in the phrase "means to an end". Kants early philosophy of mind included rational and empirical psychologies and offered a solution to the mind/body problem.
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